More good work Salpetie. Thanks! I did work in the Paterson in...

More good work Salpetie. Thanks!

I did work in the Paterson in the early 90s, but much further south, drilling SE of Telfer. Also worked much further west of there much earlier, in the early days of the Nifty rumours. (Nobody was looking this far north then though because of the depth of cover).

Re the exact location of rumoured Rio copper discovery: going back to Barry Fitzgerald's article, I still think that it is exactly where you originally plotted it, on the northernmost granted Rio tenement.

BF says that the discovery is 150km NW of Telfer: "The find is suspected to be roughly 150km north-west of Newcrest’s Telfer gold-copper mine", which corresponds well with your original location. Whereas your alternative location is only 130km NW of Telfer.

BF also clearly describes the arc of magnetic anomalies that we can see leading to your original location: "..a clear trend of distinctive anomalies in an arc from the Sipa ground, through Antipa’s, and on to the suggested Rio discovery site"

And he also says: "The Rio copper discovery in the north Paterson is understood to be to the west of tenements held by Antipa (which has Rio as a big spending joint venture partner on part of its tenement package) and Sipa".

So the discovery is due west of both the Antipa and the Sipa ground (your original location), not dues outhwest of Sipa's ground (your later BHP copper anomaly)

And the 'magnetic arc' is implied to extend right up to it from the 100%-owned Antipa ground, rather than from the Rio/Antipa joint venture part of Antipa's ground.


So that's my take on it: the discovery is located on the northern granted Rio tenement, pretty close to old BHP air-core hole 65 (perhaps a km or so north of it?)


A couple of other things struck me as I was re-reading BF's article:


1) Barry is pretty clear about the significance of the copper discovery. He says:

"It seems that Rio has made a copper discovery of note in Western Australia’s remote Paterson province."

Either he has been told that a discovery 'of note' has been made, or he has been told of a discovery and is inferring that its significance is of note from the immediate mobilisation of a 40 man camp and two diamond drill rigs.


2) The article also reads as though somebody with direct knowledge of the copper discovery location has shown Barry a map, with the magnetics and tenements on it, and pointed out the location of the discovery, and then pointed out the line of magnetic features running NW to it. They have probably also pointed out that these magnetic features start on the Sipa ground, run right across the Antipa ground, and end at the copper discovery, on the 100% Rio ground:

"Geophysical mapping does suggest a clear trend of distinctive anomalies in an arc from the Sipa ground, through Antipa’s, and on to the suggested Rio discovery site. "

This is not just drillers' gossip over a beer in the Conglomerate Hotel. And Barry has not gone out and flown his own magnetic survey. Somebody who knows exactly where the discovery is and has a clear idea of its significance is for the adjacent companies has invited him into the office and shown him the maps.