‘Twinkle Toes’ Harmanis dances a gentle jig after sightings of lead, zinc and silver on the Talisman rig

It would seem Talisman (ASX: TLM) is indeed well named, with the NSW Lachlan Fold Belt explorer notching up a “significant” lead-zinc-copper discovery at its Durnings project, 25km north of Condobolin.

The “significant” tag was applied by Talisman’s veteran geologist MD Andrew Munckton who knows what significant discoveries look, even if it is very early days at a prospect which sits 35km south-east of company’s Rip n Tear prospect, where a potentially large-scale lead-silver-zinc system is also in the offing.

The market certainly warmed to the idea that Durnings could be something special by sending Talisman 7.5 cents, or 42%, higher to 25 cents in Wednesday’s market, valuing the company at $47 million. Non-executive chairman and 19% shareholder Kerry Harmanis will be pleased.

Not just because of the share price gain. After dancing to a set of ABBA tunes at the after-party at the Resources Rising Stars conference on the Gold Coast last year, Harmanis said he hoped one of his junior companies could deliver another big metals discovery before he pulled up stumps.

Harmanis is, of course, well known for the discovery of the high-grade Cosmos nickel deposit in WA by Jubilee Mines, another junior he incubated. The discovery powered up Jubilee to the $3 billion company acquired by Mick Davis’ Xstrata in 2007.

Talking about RRS, it has a one-day conference in Adelaide next Thursday that coincides with the AFL’s “Gather Round”. Talisman and Twinkle Toes Harmanis will be on hand to fill in the crowd on why Durnings has an excitement factor to it.

The excitement got going yesterday, when Munckton reported that the follow-up drill program at Durnings to the December discovery hole had intersected some impressive visual mineralised intersections. He said the results from the RC/diamond hole confirmed that Durnings is a “potentially very significant base metal discovery and a potential game-changer for the company”.

The hole intersected two significant zones of matrix, laminated and blebby sulphide and one zone of massive sulphide containing lead, zinc and copper.

“Located close to the original high-grade intersection in December, the diamond core has intersected massive and matrix sulphides over a down-hole width of 5.4 metres within a broader 26.8m-wide mineralised zone from 201.3m down-hole,” Munckton said.

“In addition, the hole has intersected a further 25.1m mineralized zone from 374m down-hole containing 19.1m of semi-massive, matrix, and brecciated sulphides in a mineralized lode coincident with a strong PDIP anomaly.’’

“This is without question the best hole ever drilled by Talisman in NSW and marks a major turning point in our exploration of the Lachan Project,” Munckton said after giving the usual caution that visual/pXRF assessments are no replacement for lab assays results.

As mentioned previously, Talisman is an unusual explorer in that it pulls in a regular income stream from a 1% royalty it holds on iron production at Mineral Resources’ (ASX: MIN) Wonmunna iron ore mine in WA.

It has collected $15.1 million in royalty receipts since the mine started production in March 2021 (December quarter $2.25 million). Cash and liquids at the end of September stood at $7.9 million.

It means that Talisman can count on an annual exploration budget of $5-$6 million without diluting shareholders. It also means Talisman can bring an immediate sharp focus to a discovery like Durnings without having to court a Perth broker.

Mitre Mining Corp (ASX: MMC)

Steve Parsons and crew are on to a winning formula in the mining and exploration space.

Take an unloved asset with good geological prospectivity and get busy with the drill bit to grow the resource base, ideally with a step-change in its scale, and then mobilise capital to get the thing back into production in a commodity the market likes.

Parsons and crew did that in gold in WA with the now $2.17 billion Bellevue (ASX: BGL), and they’re well on their way to doing it with FireFly Metals (ASX: FFM) at the high-grade Green Bay copper-gold project in Newfoundland, Canada.

Another has just started to pull away from the rank – Mitre Mining Corp (ASX: MMC), trading at 38.5c for a market cap of $33 million. Perth mining circles have got behind this one, with the stock up from 20c in late January.

There is a Parsons factor in there given the success of Bellevue – it was considered mined out and forgotten about until the drill bit put on 3 million ounces – and Green Bay – it was mothballed but looks to be on its way to becoming a 30,000 to 60,000 tpa copper producer.

It also reflects the speed at which Mitre has turned its Cerro Bayo silver-gold project in the Aysen region of southern Chile from an interesting project to one already sporting double the resource on its acquisition in December for $4 million in cash and shares.

A former producer of 45Moz of silver and 650,000oz of gold over 15 years until it was put on care and maintenance in October 2022, Cerro Bayo came to Mitre with an inferred resource of 3.82Mt grading 206g/t silver equivalent (AgEq) for 24.7Moz of AgEq.

Mainly desktop work led to a March doubling of the resource on an indicated and inferred basis to 50.2Moz at 311g/t AgEq (or 605,000ozs of gold equivalent if you prefer) which for a $33 million company is interesting stuff. But more is on the way.

That was partially flagged in the acquisition deal which called for the payment of another $1 million in cash and shares on the resource estimate breaching 100Moz AgEq at a grade of more than 300g/t AgEq (9.6 ounces a tonne, with the white metal currently fetching $US24.38/oz)

To get there and beyond, Mitre has the drill bit spinning on its own diamond rig, which sends off the core to an onsite assay lab, part of the estimated $150 million sunk into the project by previous owners. Other bits of kit include a 500,000 tpa treatment plant, power generators, and a tailings dam.

Mitre has flagged another resource update in the back half of the year. Judging by recent exploration results, it could be one to keep an eye on. Just this week Mitre reported “bonanza’’ grades from rock chip/channel sampling of the Cristal vein which runs off to the northwest of the current resource at project.

While not a substitute for drilling results, the rock chip and channel sample results were off the charts. The best results were 39,481g/t AgEq and 0.5m at 19,856 g/t AgEq. Again without wanting to read too much in to the results, that’s 1,269oz AgEq and 638oz AgEq respectively.

Mitre said the Cristal vein now extends over 700m and is interpreted to represent a high-grade feeder structure enveloping a wider sheeted vein target, highlighting its potential to have a major positive impact on the project’s resources.

”The close proximity of this discovery to historically mined areas demonstrates the underexplored, highly prospective nature of the Cerro Bayo project,’’ Mitre said.