From front page of Minesite.com:
minesite.com
Date: 19 November, 2001
Inco and Caldera Could Soon Be Drilling A Dead Ringer For The Minotaur Discovery.
There is a head of steam building up at Caldera Resources, the Australian diamond explorer, but this time it will be about its base metal potential. Only last month the company announced that it had agreed an option for Inco, the Canadian nickel giant , to . investigate geophysical targets on the Mt Carulina tenement in South Australia considered to have potential for Olympic Dam-style mineralisation.
This tenement lies on the O'Driscoll G2 continental scale lineament corridor of South Australia, as does Olympic Dam which is some 300 kms east south east. It covers an area of 450 square kilometres and embraces a number of geophysical targets considered to have potential for this type of mineralisation. Of particular interest is a large magnetic anomaly with an offset gravity anomaly located approximately 20 kilometres due west of Oodnadatta.. At this point it is worth pointing out that this anomaly, with its combination of magnetic and gravity anomalies, make it a dead ringer for Olympic Dam and, more to the point, the discovery by Minotaur on the Mt Woods Inlier which caused all the excitement in Oz last week.
Inco has been trying to track down another Olympic Dam for some time and is said to be very encouraged by the geophysical expression and regional structural setting of the Mt. Carulina prospect. The area is completely covered by recent sediments and drilling to approximately 400 metres depth will be required to test the basement rocks in this area. This will be no problem for Inco which can earn a 60 per cent interest in the project by spending A$1 million dollars on exploration. A stipulation of the option is that it has to start drilling within 12 months of the deal being agreed, but there is every expectation that it might start early in the New Year provided it gets the required access and other permits.
This is a rather different kettle of fish from some of the other juniors whose shares have been hyped following the Minotaur discovery at the beginning of last week. In most cases all they can point to is the fact that they have properties somewhere in the area. In Caldera's case several geophysical targets have already been identified and one - the one considered to have most potential - is virtually ready for drilling.
Obviously Caldera's interest through the Laura Ellendale Group will be diluted considerably by the time Inco has spent its million dollars, but it can elect to convert to a 10 per cent carried interest through to a positive bankable feasibility study. Even this would have a major impact on a company the size of Caldera, and it still has some excitement up its sleeve from diamond exploration. It has seven projects in all. Four of these are in the East Pilbara region where it has just expanded its interests by acquiring Fernzone which is an applicant for four exploration licences covering 212 sq kms. Caldera also has two diamond projects in South Australia and one in the Yilgarc Craton which is subject to a joint venture with SouthernEra Resources.
Earlier this month some encouraging drilling results were announced from this joint venture where the exploration licences now cover 1,350 sq kms. A shallow drill programme was initiated to identify the cause of sixteen aeromagnetic targets considered to be indicative of kimberlite pipe intrusions. Samples have been sent for testing and the presence of indicator minerals such as kimberlitic chrome spinels with diamond inclusion chemistry, ilmenite and pyrope garnets were retrieved. No microdiamonds were found, but a decision by the partners to carry on with exploration seems likely. The announcement of this decision could coincide with another major company entering a JV with Caldera on another diamond project. |
