So, I’ve put together a guide with basics on drilling, assaying, and how to assess good grades for the commodities that receive the spotlight in the news.

This perspective comes from my experience as a geologist in Australia. If you have any issues understanding the terms or need further explanations, please feel free to reach out. On the other side, for any geologists, this is elementary stuff and you probably won’t learn anything.

I consider myself a geologist with, generally, a broad base of industry knowledge (exploration focussed), with lots of room for improvement and certainly a master of nothing.

I also understand that this article might not be useful to some of you who subscribe, I cover a broad range of topics in this publication, just out of my interests.*

It’s a beast (23 minutes read), so here is a glossary of what I’ve covered:

1: Introduction (above)

2: Drilling

• 2.1: Auger drilling

• 2.2: RAB/Aircore drilling

• 2.3: RC Drilling

• 2.4: Diamond Drilling (Geologist’s favourite)

• 2.5: Drilling summary

3: Understanding Assays

• 3.1: Fire Assay

• 3.2: 4-Acid Digest - ICP Analysis

• 3.3: pX-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF)

• 3.4: Assays summary

4: Defining good grade - what is the most important factor?

5: Grade guide for investors

• 5.1: Gold (Au) hard rock - open pit and underground

• 5.2: Copper (Cu) VMS and porphyry

• 5.3: Uranium (U) sedimentary and regolith (calcrete)

• 5.4: Lithium (Li) hard rock - magmatic and brine

• 5.5: Nickel (Ni) sulphides

• 5.6: Rare earths (TREO) hard rock - hydrothermal and clays

• 5.7: Tin (Sn) hard rock - hydrothermal

• 5.8: Silver (Ag) hard rock - hydrothermal

6: Summarized grade table for investors with what I’m bullish or bearish on.

7: Discussion and closing thoughts.

Additional content update:

• Starting this month, I’ll be writing a monthly newsletter article about Argentina. There's just too much happening here, and I find myself glued to the news now that the RIGI has passed the Senate and the people are finally getting what they voted for with Milei - a free market.

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As an Australian geologist based in Buenos Aires, I can observe a variety of factors and opportunities arising from the changing political environment in Argentina.

Now, I've never worked on porphyry copper/gold exploration as a professional geologist, but I have a fair idea of when a drill hole is in mineralisation.

For spatial reference, the Piuquenes Project is in southwest San Juan Province, Argentina.

The closest town to the project is Barreal, which is seriously beautiful and has excellent views of Cordillera de los Andes, with some of the best produce I've eaten in Argentina (verdad).

On invitation from Pampa, I was lucky enough to visit the town and project for 3 days.

It’s a lot of traveling,

A flight from Buenos Aires to San Juan - 1.5 hours.

Drive to Barreal from San Juan Airport - 3.5 hours.

Drive to the project site (drilling site) from Barreal - 4-5 hours (one way).

I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to visit the Puiquenes drilling program.

It allowed me to see and familiarise myself with how an exploration drilling program operates in this part of the world.

It's a completely different setup from just rolling up the drill rig to an exploration site in Western Australia, which is what I’m used to.

Drilling at 3,800 meters altitude (12,000 feet) deep in the Andes isn't an easy feat nor is it cheap.

However, unlike the Vicuña district in northwest San Juan Province, where multi-billion dollar mining companies are drilling out programs at 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) altitude, many aspects are working in Pampa's favour at their Piquenes project.

After their market release today, here's a summary of my thoughts from my site visit.

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Vukasin is in my top 3 favourite Twitter/X accounts to follow.

He doesn’t hold back on calling someone out in the mining and exploration space when it’s required (fit’s in well with the theme of this publication).

He works as a Mining Equity A…

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I was lucky enough to be introduced to the CEO and president of Pampa Metals - Joseph van den Elsen.

Pampa Metals is listed on CSE (Canadian Securities Exchange) and OTC (PINK) and is a copper/gold explorer with a discovery in San Juan, Argentina.

I got a hell of a lot out of this chat with Joesph.

Below is a summary of what we talked about, what I learned, and what I’ll be doing with my position.

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You need to get up to speed quickly with the work that has already been done on a project. That means, looking at what the old timers may have missed with the limited technology they had available at the time.

This can take a hell of a lot of time and that is basically why the position title of Project Geologist exists in mineral exploration companies. This was my previous life before I discovered the land of steaks and beautiful women.

Argentina is bloody hot right now for mineral explorers (Vicuña copper/gold District), especially in Canadian markets.

San Juan Province in the Argentine Andes takes up a large portion of prospective ground for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation, and they don’t produce a single ounce of copper!

Javier Milei's government has arrived in office, and money is poised to flood into the country if it shows signs of economic improvement.

I often talk about cyclical sectors that have been starved of capital expenditure, well, the entire country of Argentina has been starved of capital expenditure thanks to economic mismanagement.

Opportunity?

I think so.

So that’s why I keep digging into what may be of value in my strongest area.

Mineral exploration.

In this post, I want to go through why another junior mineral explorer in Argentina has come to my attention from the historical drilling and previous exploration completed over its project.

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Today, I have a short video I recorded in Buenos Aires.

I discuss:

• Why do I invest in the highly speculative, risky market of junior mineral explorers?

• How to interpret a geological cross-section from market releases.

• How to read Appendix 5B market releases.

An important aspect of investing in junior explorers is interpreting quarterly financial market releases.

On the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange), that is the Appendix 5B quarterly market release.

Appendix 5B release provides the company's financial health, how much cash they have, and its outgoing expenses.

Looking at the latest one before investing in any exploration company is essential.

It can help you determine the timing of your investment.

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Many Geologists lack experience outside of one type of geological setting so very valuable information here.

We talked about different drilling methods in mineral exploration and what are the reasons Geologists choose them. Plus many …

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Also, note that due to the lack of interest in the discipline over the last 10 years, it’s looking like there will be a shortage of Geologists in general.

I racked up about seven years in mineral exploration which spanned from a successful junior that transitioned to a mid-tier before I jumped ship and moved to the dark side of exploration. This was to work for a global mining major, with a big-boy exploration budget, and a lot of people cruising until retirement.

This also allowed me to live a bloody fun life exploring for gold in an extremely bizarre geological terrain where according to textbooks, gold shouldn't exist. Only it did, and seriously, in 10M/oz format.

Those who understand Western Australian Geology will understand immediately what I’m talking about.

I’m a couple of years out of practice from my previous life as a Project Geologist. For the purpose of this post, I will focus on a strong point, which was assessing the potential of exploration projects. This time in my current home base in the Southern Cone of South America, which seems to be the center of the world right now due to the recent presidential election.

Argentina is a beast of a country so I’m going to narrow it down to a mineral region that has caught my eye this year. Why write about this now? Does it get any more obvious than a recent Doug Casey Tweet? 👇🏼

I’m going to focus on a major copper/gold district which is basically controlled by one family of investors.

That group of investors is called the Lundin Group, and the district is called Vicuña.

The discovery of the Vicuña District is a story of successful long-term exploration that has led to four of the most significant grassroots copper-gold-silver discoveries of the last 20 years.

The team won the (Canadian) 2024 Thayer Lindsley Award for the discovery of the Vicuña copper-gold-silver district in the Central Andean copper province in Argentina and Chile.

Many years of patient and systematic exploration by the Lundin Group's Vicuña Exploration Team has resulted in the discovery of an entirely new district that includes four major porphyry copper-gold-silver systems held by Lundin Group companies including Filo del Sol (TSX: FIL), Josemaria (TSX: LUN), Los Helados (TSX-V: NGEX), and Lunahuasi (TSX-V: NGEX).

The projects I’m going to focus on in this post:

• Filo del Sol (TSX: FIL), C$2.6B market cap, (Filo corp).

• Lunahuasi (TSX-V: NGEX) C$1.1B market cap, (NGEx Minerals).

Introduction: The Filo del Sol project was discovered in 2021. It’s located 6km away from Lunahuasi.

Filo del Sol is a high-sulphidation epithermal copper-gold-silver deposit associated with a large porphyry copper-gold system. So far, Lunahuasi is displaying similar geology.

Both projects/discoveries are at different development stages, easily identified by meters drilled to date. Drilling completed is 122 km at Filo del Sol (has a resource estimate) vs 5 km at Lunahuasi (maiden drill program completed, eight holes total, including the discovery hole).

Filo Corp: Let’s have a look at the 122 km of drilling completed at Filo del Sol.

The Filo del Sol story just keeps getting better with the latest assay results released on 25th October extending mineralisation to the south, and most notably the north (see the above long section).

The mineralisation is still open in all directions and requires further drilling.

Mineral reserves estimate:

The devil’s advocate: When comparing the Filo del Sol resource to other major porphyry copper/gold deposits from around the world such as; Econdida, Bingham Canyon, and Grasberg. The average grades in the latest mineral reserve tables are on the low side. Comparing to those world-class deposits is a bit extreme but I’d generally like to see average grade values above 0.5% Cu and 0.4 g/t Au. However, high-grade zones from recent drilling are not included.

NGEx Minerals: Let’s have a look at the 5kms (1st phase) of drilling completed at Lunahuasi.

How did the NGEx exploration team discover Lunahuasi? They used structural data from the intersection of the Filo-Los Helados Structural Corridor with the northwest-trending Copiapó lineament to pinpoint a drilling target.

With only eight holes drilled in total, and the second hole being the discovery hole, it’s completely fair to say the NGEx exploration team did an incredible job.

What’s even better, both companies (Filo and NGEx) are not really in competition and they both utilise the same geology team/information, which is probably why they nailed this discovery so well. A huge green flag and almost a catalyst for investors in my opinion.

The discovery hole (DPDH002 - 60m @ 7.5% CuEq from 210m) either intersected the guts of this system, or they have plenty more to get excited about. The alteration suggests they might have intersected the halo and not the centre of the deposit.

Here are some recent comments from Wojtek Wodzicki, President and NGEx CEO.

“These results are the best initial drill holes that I have seen in my career”

“It is very important to note that the veins drilled to date overprint propylitic alteration indicating that this mineralization is in the outer halo of a yet-to-be-discovered porphyry copper centre that is likely to be close by. We are very excited to begin working our way towards the centre of the system in the next drill program.”

The current 1500m diamond drilling program commenced this quarter with results expected end of the year / early next year.

Summary: The purpose of this post is to highlight that a pro-free market federal government has come into Argentina and the likely potential for foreign capital to return. This may cast a spotlight on Argentina's resource sector.

The success story of Filo del Sol (20x bagger since discovery in 2021) evolved throughout the extreme political and economic turbulence of the last couple of years.

Now we have the Milei government, some political direction may have returned to Argentina and this may significantly benefit the NGEx - Lunahuasi discovery if they can deliver drilling results in a similar fashion to Filo del Sol.

It needs to be noted that Milei still has a long way to go, and some stocks have run hard since his election win. Very little policy has yet been discussed.

I think Argentina looks great for mineral exploration going forward. It still doesn't produce one ounce of copper, yet it shares the same mountain range as copper-producing powerhouses Chile and Peru. Large chunks are unexplored and it’s easy to access for drilling, mapping, and other exploration activities due to the rain shadow and lack of vegetation.

Thanks for reading, I hope someone gets some value out of that.

If anyone has any questions please let me know.

Cheers,

Jordan - Geólogo Trader 🇦🇺

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial advisor, merely document my trades and lifestyle for your enjoyment. If you find value that’s great, but please do your own research and seek appropriate financial advice from qualified professionals when it comes to investing. It’s your money and your responsibility. I don’t currently hold any of these stocks mentioned in this post.

Bogan_Geologist (Twitter/X handle) is an extremely smart Geologist whom I have been following for a couple of years on Twitter.

He has valuable experience working as a Mining Analyst and Geologist. He says the quiet things out loud so of course I am a huge fan.

He sums up how small-time investors should approach assay results when they are released by a mining/exploration company.

We go through some technical geology and mining terms that could be confusing to investors in the releases. We touch on how different mineralisations can affect assays.

I’m certain you will all get value out of this if you take investing in the resources sector seriously.

He also had some great banter and callouts which I was thoroughly enjoying listening to.

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