Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) is laying out plans for further fieldwork and a drilling program at its Range Project in Western Australia after uncovering new gold-bearing structures.
The $5.11 million market capitalisation company says the new structures were identified from a program of field mapping, sampling, and data consolidation in the area.
Tempest reports that preliminary rock sampling of the ‘new and exciting’ targets has confirmed anomalous gold up to one gram per tonne (g/t) along-strike from historical mining operations.
The company completed a full review of the project in conjunction with these recent activities and highlighted metasedimentary outcrops corresponding to prominent magnetic features, especially in the northwestern flank of the tenement.
These outcrops support the company’s hypothesis that the feature may be the continuation of the Boogardie formation metasediments found in the mineralised zone of the Britannia Well pit and other mining centres in Mount Magnet.
Tempest announces regional geological modelling is currently progressing, with further fieldwork and a sampling program planning now underway.
Drill planning has also begun for both the Cherokee and Outlander targets. Pending approvals and other work, drilling is expected to begin in 2024.
Tempest Minerals is a mineral explorer with a diversified portfolio of projects in Western Australia considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
The company’s Range Project sits in the heart of the Mount Magnet mineral field and 5km along strike of the prolific plus-6-million-ounce Mount Magnet Operations. The project consists of 17 tenements for a total area of 20km-square.
Tempest Minerals had $2.037 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 September 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Born and raised in the UK, Adam is a sports fanatic with an interest in Rugby League and UFC/MMA. When not training in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Adam attends Griffith University where he is completing his final year of a Communication & Journalism degree.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has its sights set on additional exploration across its Yalgoo Gold, Base Metals, and Critical Minerals Projects in Western Australia to lay the foundations for a potential ‘big’ discovery in 2024.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the sidelines of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney, Tempest Managing Director Don Smith says exploration is at the forefront of the company’s strategy heading into 2024.
“We still have some results outstanding from our fieldwork, we have more fieldwork we are going to get done before the end of the year, and early next year, we will be going into at least 2 different drill programs at Yalgoo.
“early next year, we will be going into at least 2 different drill programs at Yalgoo”
We are also awaiting some regulatory approvals, but when they come through, we will be able to progress much quicker.
We are definitely keen on exploration and trying to make a big discovery. That is where the big growth opportunities are for investors, but we are always looking at new things as well.”
Mining.com.au is an official media partner of IMARC, which runs from 31 October to 2 November 2023.
Tempest Minerals recently unearthed new zones of gold anomalism through recent surface sampling at its Sanity target at Yalgoo, as reported on 30 October.
Rock chips returned values of up to 7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 0.2% copper, and greater than 60% iron from within ‘broader’ envelopes of anomalous soil geochemistry with peak gold values of up to 80 parts per billion (ppb) and copper values of up to 1,200 parts per million (ppm).
Tempest Minerals is a mineral explorer with a diversified portfolio of projects in Western Australia considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
The company’s Western Australian assets include the Five Wheels, Mount Magnet, Yalgoo, YLP, and Elephant projects, and it also has exposure to lithium and lithium brine in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Nevada.
Tempest’s wholly-owned Yalgoo projects comprise a multitude of prospective targets, including Sanity, which represents a local distortion in geophysical datasets that correlates ‘strongly’ with a multi-element geochemical anomaly in collected samples.
Tempest Minerals had $2.037 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 September 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Born and raised in the UK, Adam is a sports fanatic with an interest in Rugby League and UFC/MMA. When not training in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Adam attends Griffith University where he is completing his final year of a Communication & Journalism degree.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) is planning further exploration work at its Sanity and Remorse targets before the end of the year after uncovering new zones of gold anomalism through recent surface sampling.
The company says results from sampling at Sanity, which is part of its Yalgoo projects in Western Australia, have yielded new zones of ‘strong’ anomalism for gold and other metals.
Peak rock chips returned values of up to 7 grams per tonne (g/t), 0.2% copper, and greater than 60% iron.
Tempest says the results have been returned from within ‘broader’ envelopes of anomalous soil geochemistry with peak gold values of up to 80 parts per billion (ppb) and copper values of up to 1,200 parts per million (ppm).
The company is busy assessing results ahead of further sampling and mapping in Q4.
Tempest says subject to the outcome of further assessment works, it will potentially move forward with a drilling program in Q2 2024.
Tempest Minerals is scheduled to exhibit at the upcoming International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) held in Sydney from 31 October to 2 November 2023. Mining.com.au is an official media partner of IMARC, which will showcase 470-plus mining leaders and resource experts throughout 7 concurrent conferences.
Tempest Minerals is a mineral explorer with a diversified portfolio of projects in Western Australia considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
The company’s Western Australian assets include the Five Wheels, Mount Magnet, Yalgoo, YLP, and Elephant projects, and it also has exposure to lithium and lithium brine in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Nevada.
Tempest’s wholly owned Yalgoo projects comprise a multitude of prospective targets, including Sanity, which represents a local distortion in geophysical datasets that correlates ‘strongly’ with a multi-element geochemical anomaly in collected samples.
Tempest Minerals had $2.644 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 June 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Born and raised in the UK, Adam is a sports fanatic with an interest in Rugby League and UFC/MMA. When not training in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Adam attends Griffith University where he is completing his final year of a Communication & Journalism degree.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) is looking ahead to more fieldwork and drill targeting in 2024 at its Five Wheels Project in Western Australia as an initial fieldwork program gets underway.
The $4.09 million market capitalisation company says this initial fieldwork includes project setup, initial reconnaissance, and geological mapping and sampling within selected areas for the remainder of October, with results from the fieldwork expected in late Q4 2023. These results will help inform Tempest’s 2024 exploration plans for the area
Tempest first announced its acquisition of the Five Wheels projects back in July, and the company reports that it has since identified ‘important’ data from legacy exploration in the area that has added further value and anticipation to the project.
This data includes the discovery of key geological units associated with base metals mineralisation. Further, previous explorers in the area collected ‘high-grade’ soil results including 1,130 parts per million (ppm) copper and 847ppm zinc in soils.
Further, Tempest’s legacy data review has unlocked a 50km strike length of a ‘highly prospective’ target area.
The company has now begun a project-wide data compilation in conjunction with its initial fieldwork.
Tempest Minerals is scheduled to exhibit at the upcoming International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) held in Sydney from 31 October to 2 November 2023. Mining.com.au is an official media partner of IMARC, which will showcase 470-plus mining leaders and resource experts throughout 7 concurrent conferences.
Tempest Minerals is a mineral explorer with a diversified portfolio of projects in Western Australia considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
The company’s Western Australian assets include the Five Wheels, Mount Magnet, Yalgoo, YLP, and Elephant projects, and the company also has exposure to lithium and lithium brine in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Nevada.
Five Wheels is located about 146km north of the township of Wiluna in the Western Australian Warburton Mineral field within the Nabberu Region.
Tempest Minerals had $2.644 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 June 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Born and raised in the UK, Adam is a sports fanatic with an interest in Rugby League and UFC/MMA. When not training in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Adam attends Griffith University where he is completing his final year of a Communication & Journalism degree.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) will descend onto upcoming International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) held in Sydney just ahead of its Annual General Meeting on 24 November 2023.
Tempest Managing Director Don Smith will be presenting at IMARC, which is from 31 October to 2 November 2023.
Mining.com.au is an official media partner of the event, which will showcase 500-plus mining leaders and resource experts throughout 7 concurrent conferences.
Smith tells this news service he plans to use the forum to engage with investors and detail how Tempest has identified multiple ‘high-priority’ targets via a regional electromagnetic (EM) survey undertaken within its Yalgoo projects in Western Australia.
Results from the EM survey indicate the presence of several exploration targets and, according to the MD, confirm the prospectivity of the project areas.
Notably, he says multiple targets are coincident with existing exploration targets, including an EM anomaly at the 4km-long Remorse base metal target. The company expects to begin drilling work at the Remorse target in Q1 2024.
“Tempest is attending IMARC because it has become one of Australia’s premier mining industry events. It’s a chance to showcase our company to a large audience and talk to investors and stakeholders“
At IMARC, in his presentation Smith will speak about recent surface sampling results, a new exploration model, and what the completion of the Five Wheels acquisition means going forward.
Smith tells Mining.com.au ahead of the event that presenting at IMARC is a greatb opportunity for the company.
“Tempest is attending IMARC because it has become one of Australia’s premier mining industry events. It’s a chance to showcase our company to a large audience and talk to investors and stakeholders.”
Smith told this news service during the week Tempest was originally a lithium company, and the metal is still core to its story, however it’s not something Tempest is jumping exclusively into.
Mining.com.au Managing Editor Adam Orlando has more than 20 years’ experience in the media having held senior roles at various publications, including as Asia-Pacific Sector Head (Mining) at global newswire Acuris (formerly Mergermarket). Adam has worked in newsrooms around the world including Hong Kong, Singapore, London, and Sydney.
This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Tempest Minerals Ltd. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Warren Buffett said it first. Or maybe he said it best. Either way, there is truth in the idea that investing in business is, at the heart of things, investing in people. Indeed, what is a multi-million-ounce gold deposit without the human brains necessary to mine it? How would that deposit have been found without the niche skills of an expert few?
In a market where the median Australian share portfolio is worth $170,000, it helps to know what — or who — we’re putting our money behind.
Who, then, is Don Smith? Managing Director of Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) — sure. But to stop there would be to accept a poor examination of a man who has some interesting thoughts about mining and exploration.
Introduction to Geology
The first thing to know is that mining is in his blood. Born in New South Wales, Smith grew up there and in Queensland around the exploration and mining projects at which his parents worked.
A sportsman like his father, he did martial arts and played rugby league — “I played pretty much every sport and enjoyed them all” — but, interestingly, had no inclination to follow his parents.
In fact, “I was pretty much forbidden by my parents to follow in their footsteps because they had to work so hard, and I don’t think they wanted me to repeat that,” Smith says.
“I had originally enrolled to do languages at university, but when I went there, I — by coincidence — ended up in an Introduction to Geology lecture and decided that was what I wanted to do.”
Since then, Smith has racked up stints with CBH Resources, Platypus Resources, Alderan Resources, and a host of others, gathering some compelling insights along the way and holding them for effective use at Tempest.
Mining, exploration and the ‘Gollum effect’
Over the course of his 20-year career, Smith has had plenty of time to ponder the nature of the industry. Asked how he might characterise his own approach to mining and exploration, he starts by citing a curious kind of disparity.
“You have ‘mine geologists’ and then you have ‘exploration geologists’, and never the two shall meet, according to some people,” Smith says.
“Mining geologists often end up getting too involved with the actual mining part and forget the geology part, and get too rigorously stuck in processes and that kind of stuff. Whereas exploration geologists often live in complete chaos with little structure and planning, and not much reality-based information going into what they’re exploring for.”
“You have ‘mine geologists’ and then you have ‘exploration geologists’, and never the two shall meet, according to some people”
It was his time at CBH Resources, in particular, that taught Smith the importance of generalism — that there really is only one kind of geologist, with skills that are both transferable and complementary.
“There is a need for extreme-niche people in every discipline in the world, but unless you’re in the top 0.1% of an occupation, it’s better to be — especially in the modern world where technology is changing so rapidly — it’s better to be a generalist, to be good at a bunch of things so you can ensure you stay relevant,” he explains.
“My approach to exploration and mining is to do exactly that — integrate all the data and the ways that people work together.”
“it’s better to be a generalist”
Speaking more broadly, Smith says one of the issues currently faced by the industry generally is what he calls the “Gollum effect”.
“Everyone basically goes around and gets little parcels of land and doesn’t share the information, doesn’t work with their neighbours, because it’s ‘my precious’ and they don’t want to lose something,” he explains.
“The truth is, in the exploration game, someone making a discovery beside you, or nearby to you, is the greatest value-add that you can give to the company without spending any money.”
A healthy dose of “coopetition” might be the answer, Smith adds. In any case, the Gollum problem is one that needs addressing — be it with technology or regulation — since the rate of discovery in Australia and around the world appears to be “dropping precipitously”.
Beware the lithium mania
It’s perhaps because of his preference for generalism that Smith is wary of trends. The current brouhaha over lithium, for example, is something he views as “completely manic”.
“Tempest was originally a lithium company, so I’m not speaking from cynicism here — or not complete cynicism. Lithium is still core to our story,” he says.
“It’s not something we’re jumping exclusively into, is what I’m getting at. Everyone should keep doing the work, but maybe there are a few stories out there that are maybe a little bit on the bubble-ish side.”
Part of the problem could be — once again — a sense of prevailing disparity.
“I just don’t think the world has a solid grip on the lithium space. There are a lot of rubbery numbers going around,” Smith explains.
“One financial group will say there’s an X-billion-tonne requirement for lithium in the next 5 years, and then the next group will say it’s a quarter of that, or 5 times that. There’s not a lot of agreement in those numbers, so I’m not sure the demand and supply is that well known.”
“I just don’t think the world has a solid grip on the lithium space”
Last year, New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs made headlines when it predicted a tumble in lithium carbonate prices to US$53,300 a tonne in 2023 before collapsing to US$11,000 a tonne in 2024.
That assessment was in stark contrast to consensus targets at the time, which saw prices hovering around US$29,063 a tonne next year.
Macquarie Research, on the other hand, was particularly bullish, anticipating lithium carbonate would reach US$62,586 a tonne in financial 2023 before hitting US$72,500 a tonne in financial 2024.
The copper conundrum
If the lithium business is, in fact, a little on the crazy side, then “the copper thing is completely terrifying”.
“Even conservative estimates say we need to find a Chuquicamata — one the biggest copper deposits in the world — basically every year, just to keep up with the conservative requirements for copper,” Smith says.
“No one has made a serious copper discovery in a very long time, in terms of that scale, so the supply and demand in the market is definitely out of whack on that one.”
“Even conservative estimates say we need to find a Chuquicamata — one the biggest copper deposits in the world — basically every year”
Earlier this year, consulting firm McKinsey & Company published a report predicting annual copper demand would hit 36.6 million tonnes by 2031. But even with the influence of new projects, restarted operations and recycling, the best we can hope for is 30.1 million tonnes — a roughly 20% shortfall.
Then again, perhaps there is a lithium-esque kind of disconnect. At the start of October, the International Copper Study Group forecast a production surplus in 2024 of 467,000 tonnes, an upgrade from its previous estimate of 297,000 tonnes in April. But the ICSG also warned that such forecasts are snapshots in time, and that “actual market balance outcomes have on recent occasions deviated from ICSG market balance forecasts due to unforeseen developments”.
In the end, no one really knows what the future holds. Anyone who professes the infallibility of their soothsaying is either a fraud or an idiot, or both. But instinct and inclination do exist, and some are closer to the truth than others. Which makes discerning investments in companies — and, by extension, the people running them — all the more important.
Originally from Perth, Oliver has a keen interest long-form journalism. He has written for a number of publications and was most recently Contributing Editor of The Market Herald’s opinion section, Art of the Essay.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has identified multiple ‘high-priority’ targets via a regional electromagnetic (EM) survey undertaken within its Yalgoo projects in Western Australia.
These projects include the Messenger, Meleya, War West, and Euro projects.
Results from the EM survey indicate the presence of several exploration targets and, according to Tempest, confirm the prospectivity of the project areas.
Notably, the diversified explorer says multiple targets are coincident with existing exploration targets, including an EM anomaly at the 4km-long Remorse base metal target.
The company expects to begin drilling work at the Remorse target in Q1 2024.
Tempest is continuing to process data using different parameters and models to harvest further targets and details from the survey work.
The aim of this survey was to find variances in electromagnetic responses from the project areas. The survey included over 300 lines of 200m spacing for more than 2,000km of line survey measurements.
Tempest is scheduled to exhibit at the upcoming International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) held in Sydney from 31 October to 2 November 2023. Mining.com.au is an official media partner of IMARC, which will showcase 500-plus mining leaders and resource experts throughout 7 concurrent conferences.
Tempest’s landholding in the Yalgoo Region of Western Australia covers more than 1,000km-square of wholly owned tenements.
Tempest Minerals is an Australia-based exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
As of 30 June 2023, Tempest had $2.644 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Relocated from the East Coast in New Zealand to Queensland Australia, Aaliyah is a fervent journalist who has a passion for storytelling. When Aaliyah isn’t writing stories, she is either spending time with friends and family or down at the beach.
This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Tempest Minerals Limited. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Make no mistake, exploration is a numbers game. It’s the realm of chance, estimation, tenacity and, of course, luck.
“One in a million projects becomes a mine,” says Don Smith, Managing Director of Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM).
“It’s a bit of a catchphrase, but it’s also close to numerically accurate. About 1 in 1000 projects has anything at all, and then 1 in 1000 of those becomes a mine. It’s a really hard game.”
Flip a coin and land on heads 20 back-to-back times and you’d be in the same ballpark, odds-wise. So it’s perhaps with such narrow margins in mind that Smith does not play things one egg at a time.
“You can’t just have one egg in the basket. You’ve got to have multiple. If you have lots of targets and you test them all, eventually you’ll find something. It’s about increasing the chance of finding something and that’s what the Five Wheels Project is about.”
Adventures in eggs-ploration
Perth-based Tempest owns a portfolio of precious, base, and energy metal assets across Western Australia, as well as hefty interests in other projects in Papua New Guinea, Africa, and the US.
Those in WA include the wholly owned Yalgoo Project, with its Messenger, Meleya, Warriedar West and Euro properties, as well as the Range Project in Mt Magnet.
Overseas, Tempest has exposure to the Tonopah Lithium Project in Nevada through Argosy Minerals (ASX:AGY), as well as other assets in Africa through a stake in Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM). In Papua New Guinea, the company has a substantial interest in privately held Tolu Minerals, which owns the Tolukuma and Mt Penck projects, and is scheduled to begin trading on the ASX in October.
But it was this year that Tempest took a step towards true egg profusion, announcing in July its intent to acquire the Five Wheels Base Metal Project in Western Australia’s Earaheedy Basin.
“It’s a great area, the Earaheedy Basin“
The 266km-square of exploration-ready tenure sits roughly 36km from Rumble Resources’ (ASX:RTR) Chinook deposit, which made headlines in April 2021 after delivering a 34m interval at 4.22% zinc and lead. Considered one of the largest zinc sulphide discoveries to be made globally in the last 10 years, Chinook now hosts a resource measuring 2.2 million tonnes of zinc, 700,000 tonnes of lead, and 12.6 million ounces of silver.
“It’s a great area, the Earaheedy Basin,” Smith says.
“Rumble Resources and Strickland Metals (ASX:STK)” — with its Iroquois Project — “have both been hitting a lot of mineralisation there over the last couple of years and that’s really opened up the whole region. And that’s how we’re going at it — there are more opportunities there than were previously realised.”
But even before the Chinook discovery, Tempest had been eyeing the Earaheedy Basin, partly for its relative proximity to Sandfire Resources’ (ASX:SFR) DeGrussa Copper Operation, which produced up to 300,000 tonnes of high-grade copper each year from 2013 to 2022, when it closed down.
“We sort of looked at areas where you could find that kind of stuff and Earaheedy was one of them,” Smith says.
But if eggs are the metaphor of choice here, let’s start talking in terms of omelettes. Only a month after the Five Wheels news, Tempest announced its plan to add another project to its portfolio: the Elephant Project in Western Australia’s Fraser Range.
Located on the periphery of the Albany Fraser Belt, the 194km-square project features coincident geochemical and geophysical targets with a footprint comparable to other world class gold deposits in the region, according to an August 16 announcement.
“Similarly to Five Wheels, the Elephant Project is in a hot region, the Fraser Range, which is where the Nova-Bollinger discovery was made, which is now IGO’s (ASX:IGO) main project,” Smith says.
“Also, you’ve got the Tropicana mine, which is the giant AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) and Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) gold mine. They’re all on this same trend and we’ve just picked up another couple of hundred square kilometres along that trend.”
The nearological factor
When discussing exploration, reference is often made by junior players to the ‘nearology’ factor: the idea that prospective ground is most easily found close to existing discoveries.
“Nearology helps people find stuff. You go look in the same area, that certainly increases your chances of finding things,” Smith explains.
“No one cared about the Fraser Range, frankly, until Tropicana was discovered circa 2004. And that opened up a new geological theory because the rocks at Tropicana — it’s huge, 12 million ounces or something — those rocks are different in that they’re younger. So instead of everyone looking for a particular age of rock, now they can look for younger ones as well.
“Nearology helps people find stuff. You go look in the same area, that certainly increases your chances of finding things“
“Earaheedy is the same. There was no one there, then Rumble made its discovery, now every man and his dog has pegged ground there.”
If such strategies have been successful, a large portion of that success is owed to the unrelenting trudge of technological development. Countless innovations over the last few decades have conspired to make prospective ground much more accessible, and exploration work quicker, easier, and generally more efficient. But there is a component based on timing, too.
Periods of regional hubris, Smith says, make poor occasions for entry.
“It’s better to wait for it to cool down,” he adds.
“You’re either there right when a discovery is made, or you give it a bit of time and then come back and do a strategic entry. And that’s what we’ve done at both Five Wheels and Elephant.”
Those on the more discerning side of exploration have waited until the market is at — or near — the bottom. Likewise, those merging, selling or somehow winding back their acquisitions “haven’t planned for the downturns and the rainy days.”
“They’ve just jumped in when the market’s hot and now they’ve run out of money, or run out of resources or whatever, when things have gone down. And I’ve been very cautious not to fall into that trap.”
In any case, Tempest’s methodic resolve to nurture its egg basket is indeed a unique one. Compared to those of other explorers, the strategy marks a clear point of distinction; a retreat from the current trend that’s seen many companies offload non-core assets in a bid to narrow their focus.
That Tempest’s approach is different does not make it unwise or fruitless. To think so would be to ignore the company’s successes to date. Rather, it suggests the underlying imperative is effective management — an area to which Smith has devoted a great deal of thought.
Departures from dogma
“That’s one of the things we really focus on — efficiency,” Smith says.
“We try not to go and do random work and waste money. It’s about making the right choices.”
In aid of prudent decision-making, Smith has devised a system to rank Tempest’s assets according to their various qualities.
“The strategy is to always — at Yalgoo in particular, because it’s such a big project, more than 1000km-square — always to look at the big picture. Look for areas that are prospective, collect as much data as we can about each one, and then put it into a ranking system, which is a calculation we use. It’s numerical, but it can be qualitative as well. We try not to be emotive about it.”
Built into the system are between 8 and 10 “big categories” — including environment, social and native title — for which each project or target receives a score out of 10. Then there are those on the more technical side, such as geology and infrastructure.
“If it’s a project that’s out in the middle of the desert away from anything, it’s going to get a 0 for infrastructure, but it might get a 10 for geology,” Smith explains.
“At the end, you get a total number and you say: Okay, according to all the criteria, this project has the best number. That’s usually — unless there’s some other compelling reason — that’s usually the one we choose to drill, for example, or do further work.”
If the strategy is an effective one, the proof might be in Tempest’s Meleya Project, which forms part of the broader Yalgoo group of properties.
Located on what used to be Thundelarra Station, roughly 460km north of Perth, early geological survey maps had designated the project as modern sediments overlying barren granite. Initial field work by Tempest in 2019, however, found a number of inconsistencies in that assessment, suggesting instead that the ground was likely a continuation of the Yalgoo Greenstone Belt.
“We had a theory that there were these rocks out there,” Smith says.
“So we went out there and collected soil samples, and when we were out there, the rocks were actually sticking out of the ground. We didn’t even really have to do much to prove it, because there they were. All the old maps showed it was ABC rocks, where in fact it’s actually XYZ rocks, completely different. No one had gone out there to check it.”
From there, Tempest drilled a “deep ass hole” at Meleya’s Orion target in early 2022. Though it didn’t quite have economic grades in it, the hole proved “unequivocally” the presence of mineralisation associated with the Yalgoo Greenstone Belt.
It also demonstrates Tempest’s commitment to getting work done — the simple practice of doing what you said you’d do — as well as the importance of scientific discernment. Account also for the apparent million-to-one odds on project development, and you can see why Smith is so bent on his carefully curated approach.
“We try to narrow that down substantially by doing good science at the start, so that one in 1000 might become one in 300. A lot of companies drill holes left, right and centre, and good on them, they’re doing great work. But there’s never anything in them.”
“We’re drilling holes and nearly all our holes have stuff in them. Unfortunately, we haven’t got to that next one-in-a-thousand yet. But I think we’re doing pretty good in terms of what we claim we’re going to do versus what we’re getting.”
“In our office, we have a phrase: We don’t do dogma“
When Mining.com.auspoketo Tempest Minerals earlier this year, there was a hint of a theme; a whisper of a willingness to stray from generally accepted assumptions about exploration in favour of more perceptive theories.
“In our office, we have a phrase: We don’t do dogma,” Smith said at the time.
“It’s about getting the best outcome. It’s not: This is the way that it has to be.”
It’s a philosophy that’s worked so far, and one which Smith expects to continue working into the future. After all, if fortune favours the bold, it might look kindly upon departures from dogma, too.
Originally from Perth, Oliver has a keen interest long-form journalism. He has written for a number of publications and was most recently Contributing Editor of The Market Herald’s opinion section, Art of the Essay.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has officially completed the purchase of the Five Wheels Base Metal Project in Western Australia’s Earheedy Basin region.
The company has confirmed the allotment of roughly 4.56 million ordinary fully paid shares and the payment of $36,000 for the purchase of the project.
Tempest, which has a $6.58 million market capitalisation, first announced in July that it had struck a deal with privately held MAC3 to acquire the project.
The company says the 266km-square project remains ‘largely’ underexplored and shares similar geology to Rumble Resources’ (ASX:RTR) Chinook deposit and Strickland Metals’ (ASX:STR) zinc-lead-copper discoveries.
According to Tempest, the region has been explored for multiple commodities for over 100 years due to its proximity to Wiluna, but it has been recently ‘reinvigorated’ this decade since Rumble announced a ‘major’ discovery at its Earaheedy Project on 19 April 2021.
The Five Wheels project lies just 36km away from Rumble’s ‘ world-class’ discoveries.
Tempest Minerals is an Australia-based minerals exploration company. The company is focused on its diversified portfolio of projects located in Western Australia that are prospective for precious, base, and energy metals.
Relocated from the East Coast in New Zealand to Queensland Australia, Aaliyah is a fervent journalist who has a passion for storytelling. When Aaliyah isn’t writing stories, she is either spending time with friends and family or down at the beach.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has completed its acquisition of the Five Wheels Project in WA’s Earaheedy Basin. It comes just one week after the company announced the acquisition of the Elephant Project in WA’s Fraser Range, but Managing Director Don Smith says Tempest isn’t slowing down exploration at its other projects in the state.
Joining Mining.com.au from the West Coast, finance presenter Carolyn began her journalism degree in Townsville and developed a passion for mining news after a FIFO stint in WA's Goldfields.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has begun a surface geochemistry extension program at its Remorse copper, zinc, nickel, and rare earths target in Western Australia.
The $7.6 million market capitalisation company says the surface geochemistry work is designed to extend the more-than-4km Remorse target alongside sampling at new targets near new gold discoveries.
The Remorse target forms part of Tempest’s wider Yalgoo project portfolio.
In conjunction with current fieldwork, Tempest has established a heritage partnership with the traditional owners of the WA region. The company says it will work with the Badima people through the BLAC/BBAC corporation structures, with this partnership allowing the Badima to provide cultural heritage advisory in the region in which Tempest is operating.
Tempest says it also expects these groups to provide ongoing cultural and other specialist services to the company and others operating in the region.
The current field programs across the company’s WA targets are expected to take around 2 weeks to complete, with assays from the geochem work due early in the final quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, the company plans to continue progressing on multiple exploration fronts, including drilling within the Yalgoo Project.
Tempest Minerals is an Australia-based mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Western Australia. The company’s portfolio of assets is considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
As of 30 June 2023, the company had $2.644 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Relocated from the East Coast in New Zealand to Queensland Australia, Aaliyah is a fervent journalist who has a passion for storytelling. When Aaliyah isn’t writing stories, she is either spending time with friends and family or down at the beach.
Australian explorer Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) is looking to acquire the ‘compelling’ and ‘exciting’ Elephant Project on the periphery of the Albany Fraser Belt in Western Australia.
The company, which has a $7.09 million market capitalisation, says the gold project is host to ‘exciting’ coincident geochemical and geophysical targets and has a footprint comparable to other ‘world-class’ gold deposits in the region.
Tempest reports that under a non-binding term sheet signed with sole project owner Lusture, which is wholly owned by MAC3, it will now undertake legal, financial, and technical due diligence on the project.
Once completed, Tempest will pay $31,000 in cash and issue to MAC3 $69,000 in fully paid ordinary shares at its 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) prior to the completion of the deal. This will give Tempest an 80% interest in Lusture.
As part of the agreement, Tempest has agreed to incur $500,000 in exploration expenditure over a period of 3-years to maintain its 80% interest in Lusture. MAC3 will retain the remaining 20% interest.
Further, Tempest will issue 30 million fully paid ordinary shares as further consideration upon the identification of an aggregate minimum of 250,000 ounces of gold equivalent of not less than JORC indicated category on the project within 5 years.
With both parties agreeing to the non-binding term sheet, Tempest announces it will move forward with the completion of conditions precedent, as well as the completion of a share purchase agreement scheduled for late Q3 2023.
Exploration is also expected to begin as part of these future plans.
The Elephant project is located on the edge of a geological block considered ‘favourable’ for ‘major’ discoveries. The project covers a total area of 194km-square, with 135km-square granted and the remaining 59km-square currently under application.
Tempest is an ASX-listed mineral explorer with a portfolio of projects in Western Australia considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
Tempest had $2.644 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 June 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Born and raised in the UK, Adam is a sports fanatic with an interest in Rugby League and UFC/MMA. When not training in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Adam attends Griffith University where he is completing his final year of a Communication & Journalism degree.
Mining.com.au is Australia’s leading online daily Mining news service, reaching hundreds-of-thousands of mining professionals, investors, and industry participants each month. The Weekly Wrap-Up with Harry Mulholland provides listeners with a recap of the mining headlines each week.
In this episode, Harry reports on news from ABx Group (ASX:ABX), Heavy Minerals (ASX:HVY), Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM), and Astute Metals (ASX:ASE).
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) plans to actively investigate and evaluate new growth opportunities this quarter across all of its projects in Western Australia.
As announced in its latest quarterly report released yesterday (31 July), the company says it expects to conduct exploration activities such as fieldwork, alongside the progression of ‘larger’ exploration programs, including geophysics and drilling, across its portfolio.
During the last quarter, Tempest performed a ‘large-scale’ review of its Yalgoo Holdings and confirmed the ‘significant’ prospectivity of the projects, as well as numerous exploration targets therein.
In addition, the company also announced the start of a ‘large-scale’ regional electromagnetic survey being conducted by NRG, which comprised about 200m spacing for 2,000km of line survey measurements.
The survey covered a ‘large’ percentage of the Meleya and War West project areas with the aim of generating new exploration and drill targets and providing more detail on existing exploration targets. Tempest plans to combine this new dataset with the ‘extensive’ existing datasets it has already generated.
Further, the company reports Tolu Minerals continues to progress with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the ASX and is seeking to raise between $15 million and $20 million at an issue price of $0.50. Tolu’s assets are the Tolukuma Gold Mine and Mt Penck projects in Papua New Guinea.
Tempest previously subscribed for 2,702,703 shares at an issue price of $0.37 for a total investment of $1 million in Tolu, which supported the final stage of the acquisition of the Tolukuma Gold Mine and brings ‘exciting’ exposure to ‘high-grade’ pre-production projects into the company’s portfolio.
As of 30 June 2023, Tempest had $2.644 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Tempest Minerals is an Australia-based mineral explorer with a portfolio of projects in Western Australia considered ‘highly prospective’ for precious, base, and energy metals.
Relocated from the East Coast in New Zealand to Queensland Australia, Aaliyah is a fervent journalist who has a passion for storytelling. When Aaliyah isn’t writing stories, she is either spending time with friends and family or down at the beach.
Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has begun an airborne electromagnetic survey across its Yalgoo tenements in Western Australia. Managing Director Don Smith says this type of survey is ‘much more efficient’ than ground-based work and could help the company assess a larger area than it has before.
Joining Mining.com.au from the West Coast, finance presenter Carolyn began her journalism degree in Townsville and developed a passion for mining news after a FIFO stint in WA's Goldfields.
Diversified explorer Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has struck a deal with privately held MAC3 to acquire the Five Wheels Base Metal Project in the Earaheedy Basin of Western Australia.
Under the agreement, Tempest — which has a $7.60 market capitalisation — will issue MAC3 $64,000 worth of TEM shares at a price equal to their average daily volume weighted average price (VWAP) for the 10 trading days prior to completion and will make a cash payment of $36,000 upon completing the transaction.
The completion of the deal is subject to Tempest completing legal, financial, environmental, and technical due diligence by 31 July 2023 and obtaining any necessary shareholder, regulatory, or other third-party consents or approvals by 14 August 2023.
Tempest says the deal will be completed 15 business days after these conditions are satisfied. Once the transaction is complete, Tempest reports it will complete a share purchase agreement in late Q3 2023 before it begins exploration.
Five Wheels lies around 146km north of Wiluna in the Warburton Mineral Field of Western Australia and covers 266km-square of ‘highly prospective’ ground laying on the northern edge of the Earaheedy Basin.
The company says the region has been explored for multiple commodities for over 100 years due to its proximity to Wiluna and has been ‘reinvigorated’ this decade since Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) announced a ‘major’ discovery at its Earaheedy Project on 19 April 2021.
This was followed up on 19 April 2023, when Rumble announced a ‘globally significant’ pit-constrained maiden inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 94 million tonnes @ 3.1% zinc-lead and 4.2g/t silver. Strickland Resources (ASX:STK) announced similarly styled mineralisation at its neighbouring Iroquois Project in 2023.
As Five Wheels lies about 36km north of Rumble and Strickland’s projects, Tempest believes multiple ‘key’ geological sequences have the potential to be mineralised, and the prospectivity is more widespread than originally considered within the basin distal geological area.
This includes the Frere and Yelma formations, which are known to outcrop in the Five Wheels Project area, as well as large regional structures that are known as feeder systems to the mineralisation in the south of the basin.
Tempest Minerals is an Australian base mineral explorer focused on its diversified portfolio of projects in Western Australia that are considered prospective for precious, base, and energy metals.
These assets include the Range Project in the Mount Magnet region, along with the Messenger, Meleya, War West, and Euro Projects in the Yalgoo region and the Rocky Hill Project in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia.
On 31 March 2023, Tempest had $3.294 million cash at hand, according to its latest quarterly report published on 27 April 2023.
Hailing from the Central Coast region of NSW, Harry is a passionate journalist with a background in print, radio and ESG news. When not bashing away on his keyboard, he can be found brewing a coffee or playing with his dog.
