We have visited both Pajingo and Cracow, but our knowledge of Cerro Negro and Cerro Moro is limited to what we have observed in presentations. It should be noted that the following comments are based purely on observation, not necessarily following any geological theory.

As shown in the plans of all 4 of the examples in Figure 1, aside from all of them appearing to strike NW/SE, at least 2 of them, being Pajingo and Cracow have at least 2 trends.

Pajingo has done very little with their westernmost trend, but perhaps they should as the western trend appears to be better than the eastern trend – that is the case for Cracow and in presentations appears to be the case for both Cerro Moro and Cerro Negro.

Cracow of course was not aware that it had a westernmost trend, as it was mostly undercover and if anything the historical parts of it, being Roses Pride, Klondyke and Royal Standard were regarded as anomalous to the main (eastern) trend. By coincidence the easternmost trend has usually been discovered first, that was the case for Cracow; for Pajingo it came after Scott Lode but was ahead of Toby; for Andean’s Cerro Negro, Eureka came second; and Exeter’s Cerro Moro – we don’t know which came first.

Interestingly typical average grades appear to be 6 to 7g/t, with a high grade sweet spot often about half-way along the trend as at Pajingo’s Vera Nancy which was responsible for that peak production period of 333,000oz achieved in y/e June 2003 when cash costs were ~US$110/oz on 718,000t @ 14.4g/t recovered.

Golden Plateau was about half-way along the eastern trend of Cracow (admittedly a coincidental dilation jog that affects the eastern but not the western trend) and historically produced about 800,000oz. Cracow has been renowned for its sizeable orebodies or ore shoots along its trends, especially the western trend being individually ~ 300m to 400m long on strike by ~150m to 350m high resulting in Royal’s 500,000oz, and Crown’s 680,000oz. It is no wonder that nominal 200,000oz sizes seem to very quickly be delineated at Sovereign and Kilkenny.

Now as for what Phoenix on Cracow’s westernmost trend is going to be is still at an early stage, but initial indications have suggested grades could be >14g/t.

Another similarity that we noticed was between Andean’s Cerro Negro and NQM’s Pajingo, and that was the presence of sinters at the end of their easternmost trends, for Pajingo it is at the Moonlight discovery, unfortunately deep and not near/at the surface like Andean.

A classic non-geological observation has to be the distance between the trends, being ~2.5km at Pajingo, ~ 2km to 2.5km at Cracow, ~ 2km to 2.5km at Exeter’ Cerro Moro and ~5km for Andean’s Cerro Negro.

We are not sure about Andean’s Cerro Negro, but Pajingo’s mineralisation lies within or associated with faults, as does Cracow, and apparently Exeter’s Cerro Moro.

Epithermal orebodies are widely discussed and have numerous papers written about them, however, they also appear to have some similarities from a possibly non-geological viewpoint. Consequently, once you have found/discovered your epithermal trend, perhaps a second (probably NW/SE) trend should be looked for ~2km to 5km away, and focused on, with the odds so far appearing to favour towards the west.

Disclosure and Disclaimer : This article has been written by Keith Goode, the Managing Director of Eagle Research Advisory Pty Ltd, (an independent research company) who is an Authorised Representative with Taylor Collison Ltd, and with his associates, may hold interests in some of the stocks mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article should not be taken as investment advice, but are based on observations by the author. The author does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information and is not liable for any loss or damage suffered through any reliance on its contents.

Figure 1. Epithermal Comparisons and Similarities