New Apollo resource could send Saturn into orbit

Special report: The fruits of Saturn Metals’ maiden drilling program at its Apollo Hill Gold Project near Leonora in the heart of the West Australian Goldfields are soon to be revealed — with the company closing in on a much-anticipated resource upgrade.

Saturn, which was spun out of NSW-focused base metals explorer Peel Mining, listed in March after raising $7 million in a heavily oversubscribed initial public offering.

The Apollo Hill asset had been Peel’s flagship project when it floated in 2007 but exploration success in NSW’s Cobar Basin meant that the Company’s priorities soon shifted to that part of the country.

Despite possessing an inferred Mineral Resource of 17.2 million tonnes grading 0.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 505,000 contained ounces, Apollo Hill received little attention in the years leading up to the Saturn IPO.

Shortly after the company was listed though, it sank its first drill hole as part of an initial 3,000 metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program and has since conducted additional programs of RC and diamond drilling.

Some of the best results came in July when the company announced that RC drilling had defined “a continuous, higher grade lode structure within a broader mineralised envelope at the northern end of the Apollo Hill deposit”.

Among the intersections returned in this drilling were 18 metres at 2.58 g/t gold from 126 metres including 11 metres at 4.06 g/t gold from 132 metres and 28 metres at 1.2 g/t gold from 82 metres including 10 metres at 2.98 g/t gold from 92 metres.

Other results, including the final batch reported in mid-September, have confirmed Saturn’s geological model for Apollo Hill and extended mineralisation at the project.

But the true success of the drilling undertaken by the Company to date won’t be clear until a new resource is estimated.

“A lot of good work has been done by the Company in its first few months of listed life and we’ve seen some very encouraging results from the drilling,” he said.

“It’s just a case of pulling all the information together now and hopefully we can show that all that was needed to realise the full potential of Apollo Hill was a bit of extra love and attention.”

Saturn shares closed at 22c on the day of its listing in March before eventually slipping back under its issue price.

But in the past week, the stock has enjoyed a strong run, possibly helped by a positive research note published by Patersons Securities analyst Xavier Braud.

The stock reached a record high of 23c last week and closed at 21.5c on Monday.

A positive outcome with the resource update should see the Saturn share price notch a new record.

This special report is brought to you by Saturn Metals.

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