Kristie Batten: The timing is golden for Codrus' Bull Run
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.
Small-cap explorer Codrus Minerals (ASX:CDR) is about to embark on its first drilling campaign at its US gold project.
The company spent much of last year focused on uranium in Canada and was working on obtaining a drill permit for the Bull Run gold project in Oregon in the background.
Bull Run was initially identified by Codrus exploration manager Dr Stuart Owen, a geologist who was part of the team who discovered the Paulsens gold mine in the Pilbara.
The project features historical workings, having been intermittently mined since 1929, including the Record underground mine, where 5000 ounces of gold was reportedly produced from 1933-1937.
Owen was originally hunting for cobalt projects in 2018 for his then-employer Blackstone Minerals.
'There wasn't a lot of cobalt there but what really interested us at the time was the high-grade gold – it's got visible gold dripping out of these veins,' he told Stockhead.
The project was initially a part of Blackstone's portfolio but given the then-focus on nickel, it was part of the package of assets that was demerged into Codrus in mid-2021.
Given Bull Run wasn't permitted for drilling, Codrus focused on Western Australia and the project fell down the priorities list for a few years.
'The first couple of years we spent doing soil survey work, and we did an IP survey, which is really fantastic data and showed up some beautiful IP anomalies, and once we got those results, we started on the drill permitting,' Owen said.
Bullish on Bull Run
The drilling permit for Bull Run was finally granted at the start of this month.
Codrus has approval to drill up to 30 holes, or 14,000m, across 10 sites.
Historical rock sampling returned a peak result of 1040 grams per tonne gold, while soil sampling in 2022 returned assays of up to 27g/t gold.
'There's some pretty outrageous grades there, so it's really low-hanging fruit just crying out to be drilled,' Codrus executive chairman Greg Bandy told Stockhead.
'It's only ever had three holes in total and two meaningful holes put into it, and it was only drilled down to 55m.'
That drilling, by Manville Exploration in 1983 returned 20.5m at 3.53g/t gold from 7.9m, including 6.9m at 9.31g/t gold; 22.9m at 1.19g/t gold from 25.4m; 4.1m at 1.60g/t gold from 14m; and 1.6m at 2.9g/t gold from 20.1m.
'There's certainly really large scope for us to discover something here, based on both the IP survey and what is very visible on the ground and what has been shown in a couple of drill holes,' Bandy said.
Bandy said the company would start small with around a 1200-1500m program to see what comes out of it.
'We'll take a breath and see what we found and then look to step out from there,' he said.
'Hopefully, we've found something that warrants further drilling. The good thing is that the permit is enough to cover a follow-up drill program, if not a couple of follow-up drill programs, so we don't need to go back for further permits should we have some success here.'
With a market capitalisation of just $5 million, Codrus is highly leveraged to exploration success.
'This could be pretty transformational should we look like we can delineate a resource,' Bandy said.
Right time for drilling
Aside from the record gold price, explorers focused on the US are also enjoying expedited permits due to the Trump administration's public support of mining.
Gold was recently named as a metal of importance in one of Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at increasing domestic mineral production.
Bull Run is about 100km from the Cracker Creek mine, which historically produced 450,000oz of gold and has resources of 294,000oz.
Paramount Gold Nevada's 1 million ounce Grassy Mountain deposit is within 150km.
Last week, the advanced Grassy Mountain project was selected for inclusion in the US government's FAST-41 program, which allows for fast-tracked approvals.
'We've got two good neighbours nearby that show that you can produce in the area, and you can get permitted in the area, and they're probably logical people for us to talk to hopefully once we've got some gold to talk about and maybe a resource,' Bandy said.
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ABC News
19 minutes ago
- ABC News
Landmark trial to enable energy trading between solar homes and those without
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"Using the existing poles and wires, people who have excess energy from their rooftop solar can sell it to their neighbour or a local cafe," she says. "They can get more, hopefully, for that energy that they sell than they otherwise would. "And the cafe or the neighbour can buy energy at a lower price than their current retail contract." More broadly, Dr La Nauze says solar trading schemes could help answer a number of thorny questions hanging over Australia's energy transition. While equity in access to clean tech is one of them, she says the over-abundance of solar generation in the middle of the day is another. "We might also relieve some of the congestion that we have on the distribution network," she says. "The poles and wires in many parts of Australia are struggling because we have so much energy coming from rooftop solar in the middle of the day. 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ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
What the US warning on China means for our defence
Sam Hawley: Donald Trump is demanding America's allies massively boost defence spending. His Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, says a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be imminent. And one of our closest allies, the UK, is rushing to invest billions of dollars in its defence force to make sure it's war-ready. Today Peter Dean from the United States Studies Centre at Sydney Uni, on what that all means for us, and whether our defence force is fit for purpose. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal Land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Peter, we better start with these comments from the US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, at the Shangri-La meeting in Singapore. He has warned that China poses an imminent threat to Taiwan. Pete Hegseth, US Defense Secretary: To be clear, any attempt by communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world. There's no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent. We hope not, but it certainly could be. Peter Dean: Yes, so Secretary Hegseth I believe is referring to here is comments made by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and by other members of the Chinese leadership, where Xi Jinping in particular has said that the Chinese military are prepared to use force and to achieve specific capability goals by the dates of 2027 and the dates of 2029. Pete Hegseth, US Defense Secretary: We know, it's public, that Xi has ordered his military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027. The PLA is building the military needed to do it, training for it every day and rehearsing for the real deal. Peter Dean: This is about requirements that Xi Jinping has set for the development of the People's Liberation Army and its subsequent Navy and Air Forces as well. So this is about its development of specific capabilities, but also its command and control systems, its ability to conduct exercises and its ability to conduct the types of high-end warfare to undertake, for instance, a strike across the Taiwan Strait. Sam Hawley: So what has China then, Peter, had to say about all of this, that it will imminently attack Taiwan? Peter Dean: Well, I mean, what Xi Jinping has said is that he reserves the right to use force to solve what the Chinese argue is a domestic political issue. They, of course, refer to Taiwan as a rogue state. They don't recognise the democratic system that the Taiwanese people have. And of course, they don't recognise the will of the Taiwanese people, who overwhelmingly identify now as Taiwanese and do not wish to be reunited with the mainland. Sam Hawley: Well, China's foreign ministry does say that the US is overstepping its bounds and stoking flames in the South China Sea in response to those comments from Pete Hegseth. Sam Hawley: Let's consider, Peter, now then China's military build-up and defence spending by Western nations. Now, our Defence Minister, Richard Marles, he also addressed that conference in Singapore, noting that Australia can't rely on the US alone to counter China's military strength in the Indo-Pacific. Richard Marles, Defence Minister: There is no effective balance of power in this region absent the United States, but we cannot leave it to the United States alone. Other countries must contribute to this balance as well, and that includes Australia. Sam Hawley: And he also pointed to that huge military build-up by China. Richard Marles, Defence Minister: What we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build-up in a conventional sense by any country since the end of the Second World War. Peter Dean: So I think what Richard Marles is putting out there is basically reaffirming Australia's strategic approach and that this is not just something that we can rely upon the US to do on its own. It doesn't have the requisite levels of capability to respond to China in this way. It must be by a community of nations within the Indo-Pacific. And as a status quo power, Australia and the United States and others are attempting to maintain the free and open Indo-Pacific that we currently have and stop any state from being able to dominate that region and impose a sort of hegemonic control over the Indo-Pacific. Sam Hawley: All right. Well, Donald Trump, of course, and Pete Hegseth have urged US allies in the region to increase their defence spending. They want Australia to raise our contribution to 3.5% of GDP, but let's face it, we are nowhere near that at the moment, and that would cost a lot of money, wouldn't it? Peter Dean: Oh, yes. You're looking in the realm of somewhere around $41 billion additional to go into defence spending to raise that level of money. I think what's really key here is GDP as a measure of defence spending has become a bit shorthand in recent decades for sort of commitment towards defending your own country or contributing to collective defence. There is no magical number that the Australian government can get to that would make our country safe. And if you remember way back when Tony Abbott was vying to become Prime Minister, when Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd were running the country, then there was a whole debate about achieving 2% of GDP, which we currently have. Now the debate has moved on to is it 3 or 3.5% of GDP. But of course, as I said, most importantly, this number is being used internationally as a proxy by both the Trump administration, but by other states around the world, relative to an individual state's commitment to both its own sovereignty and security, but also the collective defence of the region it lives in. Sam Hawley: Yeah, well, Anthony Albanese says we will determine our own defence policy. And he notes that Australia is on track to lift defence spending to 2.4% of GDP by 2033-34. Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: We're provided an additional $10 billion of investment into defence over the forward estimates. We're continuing to lift up. That adds up to 2.3% of GDP. Sam Hawley: A long way, as we said, to 3.5% that the Americans actually want. But nations like the UK are now moving more quickly, aren't they, Peter? The British leader, Keir Starmer, he has promised to increase annual spending to 3% up from 2.3%. They seem pretty worried in the United Kingdom. Peter Dean: Yeah, look, the UK government has made a firm commitment to move to 2.5% of GDP in the next couple of years and 3% of GDP in the near future. This is off the back of their strategic defence review. News report: Under the AUKUS security pact with Australia and America, 12 new nuclear-powered submarines will be built to protect Britain's waters. Six new munitions factories will be constructed across the UK and thousands of long-range weapons will be manufactured on British soil. Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister: We are moving to warfighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces. When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready. Peter Dean: Particularly in response not only to the war in Ukraine and the threat from Russia, but of course, most recently from the changing posture of the United States under President Donald Trump. And what we can see there is Keir Starmer, along with Emmanuel Macron from France and other key leaders in Europe, are working assiduously hard to provide for greater defence of Europe based on European needs. Sam Hawley: Well, the British leader Keir Starmer says the UK must be ready to fight a war. Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister: A battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities equipped for the decades to come. Sam Hawley: What weaponry does he want? Peter Dean: Well, what Keir Starmer has announced is that he wishes the UK military to field a force of at least 7,000 long-range missiles. Now, if you look at what's happening in the war in Ukraine in particular, but also the war in Gaza and the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, what you've seen is the explosion of the use of long-range precision fires in each of those conflicts. Sam Hawley: Well, the UK plans to pay for all of this by, in part, cutting international aid, just to note that. What's it really worried about then? Is it just Russia or does China come into this as well for the UK? Peter Dean: Look, I think it's both. I mean, what we're seeing is a fundamental changing of the strategic order of the world that we live in. The world is becoming much more dangerous. As our own government has said, we live in the most perilous times. We're seeing the rise of revisionist powers, in particular China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. And of course, the Russian illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine has been really at the centre of this. This is the first time since the end of the Second World War that Europe has seen a large major power conduct a full-on invasion of another state in Europe. That is an ongoing war, as we see today. And it looks like President Trump's efforts at brokering a peace deal are faltering at the moment. So that war is going to continue on. Sam Hawley: And the concern is, of course, that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he has other plans after that, right? Peter Dean: Well, exactly. And Putin, again, I think we need to actually believe what the rhetoric is coming out of some of these leaders from some of these states. I mean, Putin made it very clear in the lead up to the war in Ukraine that he believes that Ukraine shouldn't exist as a sovereign state, that it belongs as a part of a revitalised Russian empire that he sees. And he committed similar acts in states such as Georgia and other parts. And of course, in Ukraine itself, where he conducted limited incursions. And of course, what we see in the South China Sea and the East China Sea is ambient claims from China that are not recognised by international courts or international law. And the Chinese consistently using coercion military force against the Philippines, against Vietnam, against Indonesia, against Taiwan and against Japan in various parts of those seas to push their own sovereign claims, even though they are not recognised in the international community and not recognised by those other states. And of course, we add in the layer here of the cyber domain and cyber dimension, that while we're largely in strategic competition with these states across the globe in areas such as cyber, we're in day to day limited conflict as we receive an onslaught of assaults in the cyber domain from states such as North Korea, Iran, China and Russia. Sam Hawley: All right, well, Peter, as you say, we're living in a less stable world. But what do you think is our approach when it comes to defence, the right one? Are we war ready like the UK wants to be? And if we're not, do we actually need to be? Peter Dean: I think we're definitely not war ready at the moment. If you look at the Defence Strategic Review in 2023, it made it really clear that the ADF was not fit for purpose. The government is in the process of lifting defence spending to try and achieve some of the outcomes that were set. We don't have 10 years anymore to wait to prepare our forces. Now, what's been happening in Australia has been a long discussion in recent years over the requisite levels of defence spending. This was happening well before Donald Trump was elected for his second term of office. And if you look back to last year, you'll see some very eminent commentators and experienced people in this debate, people such as Sir Angus Houston, the former chief of Defence Force and one of the two independent leads of the Defence Strategic Review, former Secretary Dennis Richardson, former Labor leader Kim Beazley, former Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo, have all called for increasing of defence spending to around about three percentage of GDP on defence. So this is a national debate that's been happening for quite a while. And now it's become much more direct, given that our US alliance partner has directly made the request to Australia to increase defence spending. Sam Hawley: All right, and what about this imminent threat that Pete Hegseth talks about that China will invade Taiwan soon? If that was the case, and we're not saying that it is, of course, but what would that mean for us? Peter Dean: This would mean you have the two largest economies in the world going toe to toe militarily with each other across the Taiwan Strait and in East Asia. It would always inevitably suck in states like Japan and Korea and Australia and others. And in all the estimates we have, not only would it be the extreme loss of life that would occur by the states involved in the conflict, you would spiral the global economy into a major recession, if not depression. You're talking about the most dynamic economic region in the world being consumed by conflict. And we will be putting ourselves in the risk not just of a global economic recession and a major war, but of course, we're talking about a war here between major nuclear armed states. The government's not wrong when it says we live in this really dangerous strategic age. And of course, Donald Trump is not helping that, right? He's not helping stability and security. He's, you know, in many senses, creating a source of additional instability in the global strategic order. Sam Hawley: Peter Dean is the director of foreign policy and defence at the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. ABC News Daily will be back again on Monday. Thanks for listening.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- News.com.au
100 days to go before massive NBN internet speed upgrade for Australians
Massive upgrades in internet speeds are now just 100 days away for Australian households. From September, government-owned telecommunications company NBN, which supplies internet providers like Telstra and Optus with the physical infrastructure that connects households to the internet, will deliver massive upgrades to its network speeds. The accelerated, high-speed wholesale products will be available to providers to sell to eligible residential and business customers connected to the NBN network via fibre to the premises or hybrid fibre coaxial options. The Home Fast package will increase speeds from 100/20Mbps to 500/50Mbps, delivering a five times improvement in downloads and 2.5 times faster uploads. The Superfast package will increase speeds from 250/25Mbps to 750/50 Mbps, while Ultrafast will double upload speeds from 50Mbps to 100Mbps. The Hyperfast offering will deliver 'blazing-fast speeds for top-tier connections', with 2000/200Mbps (on fibre to the premises) and 2000/100Mbps (on hybrid fibre coaxial). It is expected Hyperfast will be sold to retailers for a wholesale price of $115 per month. Customers who purchased one of these higher speed tiers, or choose to upgrade, would automatically accelerate to the new, faster speeds when the plans were made available by the retailers, the company said. NBN general manager Jane McNamara said the speed changes would 'future proof' Australia as the world moved online. 'Back in 2015, the typical Australian home had two or three internet-connected devices,' she said on Friday. 'Today, the average number is about 25 and includes devices like smart phones, laptops, TVs and smart speakers, all of which need the internet to work. 'With people in Australia averaging more than 6½ hours a day online, streaming and gaming more than ever before, the number of connected devices (is) expected to rise to more than 44 by the end of this decade.' But the company has warned that the technological boost will only be available to certain households. 'Higher speed plans are only available on NBN's fibre to the premises and hybrid fibre Coaxial technologies,' it said. 'Check your address to see if higher speed plans are available at your place, and for those customers on fibre to the node or fibre to the kerb, whether you are eligible for a fibre upgrade.' Some households might need to upgrade their home equipment to make the most of the new speeds, the company added, and simple adjustments to a home's set-up, such as how modems and routers are placed, could also impact speed. 'Many objects and materials in the home can reflect or absorb your wi-fi signal, either slowing the speed as they pass through or blocking it altogether,' the company said. 'Metal doors, appliances, mirrors, solid walls, floors, and ceilings can significantly reduce signal efficiency and effective distance. 'Interior walls, furniture and even windows can do the same but to a lesser degree. 'Liquids, like those in fish tanks, fridges, hot water systems and even bottles can absorb wi-fi signal, preventing it from reaching your devices. 'Other technology, including radios, baby monitors, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, use signals that can interfere with your wi-fi.' The NBN advises to keep wi-fi routers out in the open.
