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Coffee with Samso Episode 136 is with Michael Jardine, Managing Director of Ironbark Zinc Limited (ASX: IBG). When I first came across Ironbark Zinc, I was intrigued by the Citronen Zinc-Lead project in Greenland. It is a project that has basically ticked all the boxes for mining and production to happen immediately. The Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) was released in July 2021 which looked pretty good. I reached out to Michael to see if we could have a Coffee and showcase what I think is a ready made project. It is not every day that you come across a project that seems to have all their ducks lined up in a row yet nothing is happening. Chapters: 00:00 Start 00:20 Introduction 00:56 Michael introduces the Ironbark Story. 01:42 Geology of the Citronen Zinc Project. 02:47 How has the market reacted to the BFS? 04:38 Zinc Price. 07:24 What is the process of breaking dirt for Ironbark? 09:55 How do you manoeuvre through the potential cost of Arctic mining? 13:10 Why Citronen is easier than other "Arctic" mining projects. 14:53 The Jurisdiction Question. 17:32 The Uranium Spanner in the Works. 18:15 Exploration upside of Citronen. 19:52 Greenland is a good place for a mining project. 21:22 The Green - ESG Zinc conversation. 24:55 What are the drivers of the Zinc market? 26:39 Substitution of Metals. 27:29 Can Citronen be a Green process? 29:44 Why invest in Ironbark? 31:45 The marketcap of Ironbark is low. 32:44 Conclusions PODCAST This is a good time to download the first Ebook (FREE) from Samso as it is all about VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulfides). About Michael Jardine Managing Director Mr. Jardine has a strong background in Corporate & Project Finance, Strategy Development and Minerals Marketing and his previous experience includes Board & Executive roles at a number of junior ASX listed resource Companies. Mr. Jardine has previously served as a Director of Atrum Coal Limited (ASX:ATU) and Pegasus Metals Limited (ASX:PUN, now Scorpion Minerals Limited). Mr. Jardine also served as the General Manager, Corporate Development for formerly listed General Mining Corporation (ASX:GMM) from 2013-2016, and Eastern Goldfields (now Ora Banda Mining, ASX:OBM) during the same period. About Ironbark Zinc Limited (ASX: IBG) Ironbark Zinc Limited (ASX:IBG) is developing the 100% Owned Citronen Zinc Project 30 Year Mining Licence Granted Bankable Feasibility Study Complete Pathway to Funding Supportive Partners – Nyrstar & Glencore Strong Zinc Price Ironbark is focused on developing its 100% Citronen Zinc-Lead Project in Greenland. In late 2016, a 30 Year Mining Licence was granted by the Greenland Government and in September 2017 Ironbark released a cost update to its 2013 Feasibility Study. The results of the study demonstrated compelling economics of an NPV of US$1,035M (US$909M post tax), IRR 36% (post-tax 35%) and life of mine revenue of US$6,364M. Please refer to the announcement of 12 September 2017 for full details and price assumptions. The Feasibility Study Update (2017) was based on the original 2013 Feasibility Study but has incorporated a recent review of capital and operating costs. Several major changes that have been highly favourable include improved global benchmark smelter treatment terms, lower fuel prices (which represents one of the Projects´ largest forecast costs of operation), and the long-anticipated recovery in the zinc price. There have been some cost increases, including wages and some materials, however, the result is a far more robust project than ever before which is reflected in a post-tax NPV of US$909 million, placing Ironbark in a strong position to become a major new zinc producer. Citronen represents one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc deposits with 12.8 billion pounds of zinc defined in its open-ended JORC compliant resource. Current mine life stands at 14 years. However, the project is at this stage only limited by drilling and is open in most directions. The ore zones are simple, flat and continuous which lead to a simple room and pillar underground mining operation. The higher grade underground mine is supported by open-pit fresh sulphide ore with a low strip ratio. Proven DMS and flotation techniques will produce separate zinc and lead concentrates. The project benefits from a mining friendly government with low sovereign risk. Mining will take place all year round with a three month shipping window. Ironbark is supported by its major shareholders Nyrstar – a major global zinc smelter group, and Glencore International AG – the world’s largest zinc trader, major zinc miner and smelter. The price of zinc has remained exceptionally strong throughout 2017, and rose steadily throughout the September quarter, reaching 10 year highs. Zinc, the fourth most mined metal by volume, is mostly used for galvanising steel, and has run hard since June 2017 reaching a peak value of US$3,264/tonne on 3 October 2017. LME zinc stocks are currently below 270,000 tonnes, which is down by over 40 percent from a mid 2016, which suggests market tightness. The Chinese Shanghai stockpiles are following the same trend and are also substantially lower. Lower Chinese treatment charges and better zinc payability terms being offered by the smelters also point to a genuine market tightness. It has been widely forecast that zinc prices may continue to trend upwards in the near future driven by increasing tightness in the concentrate market, following the closure of several major mines and healthy and growing zinc demand. This has been observed already with increasing Chinese refined metal imports. Overall tightness in the market and the major metal warehouses such as the London Metal Exchange (LME) and the Shanghai Exchange with regards to falling stocks are likely to be supportive and drive zinc prices even higher. In the context of Ironbark, this should prove to be a very supportive financing environment. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. About Samso Keep us informed too! Please let us know your thoughts and send us any comments to info@samso.com.au. Remember to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Samso Media and our mail list to stay informed and make comments where appropriate. Other than that, you can also give us a Review on Google.

This week I have decided to go off tangent and introduce an associate of mine who works and lives in the exciting city of Dubai. Maria Kanakrieh and I met in 2013 on one of my many investor relations trip and we have kept in touch sporadically. I was surprised to find out that Maria is now an IT guru with the launch of her own App. I was automatically intrigued with what is it and how she started this journey with multiple questions. So I invited Maria to share her thoughts on the journey and her App. Maria Kanakrieh began her career in a specialist marketing role, before shifting to a business development role which services all sizes of businesses in the Middle East. The positions allowed her to gain great relationships with many local and international companies ranging from SME to corporate. After joining the investment industry, Maria has been able to connect and coordinate opportunities ranging from oil and gas, confectioneries and mining. After a few years in the industry, Maria decided to pursue the entrepreneurship road where she is currently focusing on tech business ideas. The End of Outdated Resumes by Maria Kanakrieh Finding the right job might sound like a dream come true to many, whilst finding the right candidate – better yet, team player, is one of employers’ toughest jobs. They say, hire people smarter than you, hence why many dedicated much of their time and resources to go through hundreds if not thousands of resumes and dissect experiences of those beings, on a piece of paper! Fascinating stuff. LinkedIn has successfully been able to cater to the professional world and been one of the most used platforms to connect to potential candidates. They mastered the art of taking an outdated resume and plugging it on the web for easier access, plus added some pretty cool features to make it more social. Major thumbs up where simple creativity had put them on the map of superbly successful companies. The question is, is it not an outdated method? Aren’t many candidates losing their chance of being hired due to reasons such as not enough degrees because of money issues, or, not enough exposure to corporate companies because they did not attend elite schools and colleges, the list can go on. My co-founder (Laith Al Hassan) and I spent some time trying to figure out how we can begin our entrepreneurship journey with a cool business idea that would be useful. That is when some funny and crazy ideas started bouncing off during our brainstorming sessions. A shorter version of the story ends with us thinking about our close friends always asking us to hook them up with job openings. They were all great individuals; smart, presentable, hardworking – the whole package! Why were they unable to secure interviews from sending through their resumes? Because they were not even given a chance to show their personalities. They were only being judged by a piece of paper – that, let’s be real, sometimes includes information that is exaggerated and not interesting. It is, after all, a piece of paper. With social media’s popularity over the past few years, and peoples’ obsession with their smart phones and stalking – I mean, watching other peoples’ moves online, came the idea of our first business. Clipme – think about resume, in a clip form (and yes, it is pronounced similar to resume with the accent). Clipme is an app that allows anyone looking for a job, to upload a 20 second clip of themselves. One can simply pitch themselves and enjoy their 15 seconds of fame (hence why we went with ’20 seconds’ – close enough). Once their clip goes live, employers can simply scroll through the different categories of jobs and double tap on the clips of candidates they fancy to connect with. Sounds interesting? Would you like to know more? Check out www.clipmeintl.com Please feel free to contact Maria through www.clipmeintl.com or email me on noel.ong@samso.com.au and I will make the connection for you. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

In 2009, I sought out to list a company on the ASX with the sole determination to discover the next gold mine or the next commodity mine. I looked at the market and decided that the best commodity is gold for the uncertainty and the fact that it has been over sold. The other was Uranium and that was because I believed that the cleanest and most efficient form of future energy is nuclear. Now, I was correct in predicting that the pricing of gold and uranium (Figure 1 and 2) would rise and the market will be there if you discovered the deposit. Now the fact that we could not find that deposit was the problem…… Although the uranium price did tank after Fukushima so technically, we could have found the deposit but the market was just not interested… :-). My story is not different to that of many explorers looking for a go, some come and go and some come and become monsters, such as Sirius Resources Limited (ASX:SIR), Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX:SFR; Figure 3), and maybe ………….. well nothing else really…….There are many other success stories but I cannot remember any significant discoveries that would fall into a “blind discovery” story, I am more than happy to accept the ones that have forgotten….. just a sign of old age….. I guess, Great Central Mines with Bronzewing and Jundee could well fall into that category but that is going back to the early 1990s. However, in my opinion, the Nova story is the most impressive and I am sure, every exploration geologist would like to write as his or her own. I for one, would have liked that to be my story, but it belongs to Mark Bennett and the Sirus team. The exploration process or sequence is pretty well captured by a article written by Brendan Jephcott in Linkedin. It is a well written article and gives the reader a good understanding of how it went from a grassroot exploration project to a major discovery that is worth every dollar spent in exploration. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nova-bollinger-ni-cu-deposit-brief-history-brendan-jephcott-{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5}E4{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5}B8{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5}81{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5}E4{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5}B8{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5}81) A couple of YouTube videos of Mark Bennett is excellent for those that are interested. The presentation is made to the Australian Institute of Geoscientists so its a geological presentation. What is a good note is that in the Q and A part, you can pick up that the discovery is primarily a test and see method. His title of WHO DARE WIN is exactly what EXPLORATION is all about and that is why I loved the Nova story. Presentation of the discovery by Mark Bennett – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIk3nCBtuC4 Q and A with Mark bennett after his presentation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGryOpjM2o8 Sandfire has a similar story but my point is that there has not been many major discoveries in recent time that is worth mentioning. There have been success stories where companies have extended mineralisation in old mined deposits or discovery of major deposits within the mineralsied zone. Probably the best is that of Trident Gold Mine which was discovered by Avoca Resources. It had a resource of over 900,000oz. The company discovered the deposit after near mine exploration. The other is the Invincible deposit discovered by Gold Fields Australia just south of “Kambalda Goldfields”, ( http://diggersndealers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/GoldfieldsDiggers-Dealers-Invincible-FINAL-for-DD-Presentation-Copy.pdf ). The AUSIMM published a very interesting article in 2015 titled, ” Tackling the crisis in mineral exploration” https://www.ausimmbulletin.com/opinion/tackling-the-crisis-in-mineral-exploration/“ This is a very economic article on the merits of exploration and why exploration is very important, complicated and expensive. I would strongly recommend a good read as this will really caputre the real essence of why we need to explore. It makes a very interesting read and it highlights out the increasing cost of discoveries. I believe that the cost of discoveries are due to many factors such as greater depth, greater difficulties in finding deposits, greater cost of labour…etc However, the lack of discoveries is significant as that means the rate of replenishment is not being met and in many circumstances, the supply is going to be lacking behind demand. With this in mind, expenditure into exploration will need to increase in the near future and all the neglected advanced exploration projects will eventually demand value and those that sit on the sideline now will be regretting this lack of movement now. For those who wants to understand who I consider a modern day prospector who has made persistent prospecting a real success, have a look at this …… Mark was a prospector for almost 20 years before his first major win and that was the Bronzewing Gold deposit which he sold for about AUD150M. It was another 20 years before his next win and that was the Nova Nickel Deposit, and I think he sold his remaining share for a total win with Nova of about AUD600M+. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yABf8vBW6LA On a final note, this is what exploration is all about on a small sacle…. just for fun, watch this………. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXahfkEia2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrz-Qf-WM-c Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

This is an updated post from Sam Ulrich. The mining industry mantra “Grade is King” is often used, especially in the gold industry. But is it true? Do higher gold grades automatically mean lower costs, potentially higher profits and possibly better returns for investors? What sounds so simple in theory is not in reality. At the single mine scale, the grade is king holds true. All the costs of extracting the gold and sustaining the operation, known as the All-in Sustaining Cost (AISC) on a per ounce basis varies with gold grade, where at higher grades, AISC is lower and vice versa. But when collectively comparing the Australian gold industry as a whole, such a relationship is not transferable between deposits. For example, in the September 2016 quarter the Gwalia gold mine processed ore grading 10.00g/t producing 67,118oz of gold at an AISC of A$774/oz (US$587/oz) and the Mt Rawdon gold mine processed ore grading 0.99g/t producing 24,878oz of gold at an AISC of A$764/oz (US$579/oz). Both of these mines will be two of the lowest cost gold mines in the September 2016 quarter, and yet their grades are an order of magnitude different. Most mines in Australia will have gold grades between these two mines and will have AISC higher, than these two mines. Collectively as an industry “grade is king” does hold true at the ore processing stage, but not at the ore mining stage (Figure 1). Knowing this, additional geological factors other than grade must have an influence over the operating cost structure of the mining operation. The minable geometry of the orebody generally decides the mining method, which influences costs, what derives this minable geometry? Answer, structure, mineralisation style(s) and grade. These factors combined with scale (size of the orebody) determine the costs. A good way to get a feel for this is what is the average gold ounces per vertical metre. Differences obviously exist between open pit and underground operations and the operations that use both mining methods. Whenever you hear that a gold resource is of good grade and better than, ding, ding, ding projects/mines, ask the additional important questions, what is the underlying structure, mineralisation style, scale of the deposit and how many average gold ounces per vertical metre does that relate to? It is easy to pull out a so-called comparable selection of deposits to show a gold resource in good light with respect to grade, but it does not mean it is any good. For an excellent recent summary of the Australian and New Zealand gold industry for the 2016 June quarter check out. http://www.cet.edu.au/news-and-media/news/news-details/2016/09/02/ravensgate-cet-gold-operations-bulletin The author, Sam Ulrich is a consultant geologist with over 20 years’ experience, primarily in mineral exploration, resource development and mineral asset valuation in Australia and Asia. He is presently undertaking a PhD part-time at The University of Western Australia, investigating the geological controls on the operating cost structure of Australian and New Zealand gold mines. The aim is to link economics with geology to understand the drivers of competitive advantage between gold deposits. He is contactable at sam.ulrich@research.uwa.edu.au LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/samulrich Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

In my endeavour to look at new concepts and creating new networks, I visited the 2018 International Business Festival in Liverpool, UK between the 11th June and the 25th June. The festival took the format of 3 days per week for 3 weeks, so a total of 9 sessions. Although the main components of the talks were about the UK, I picked up a lot of concepts and ideas for the Austalasian sector. There was also the creation of new networks of investors and projects. Each day had a different theme and within each day, there were micro themes. https://www.internationalbusinessfestival.com/ Week 1 1. Global Economics 2. Urbanisation & Cities 3. Sustainable Energy Week 2 4. Future Transport 5. Manufacturing 6. Global Logistics & Shipping Week 3 7. Health & Life Sciences 8. Creative Industries 9. Sport, Culture & Travel The one major story I kept hearing was the aggressive nature of British government spending. The figure of £6B were being spent to generate business in the UK. There were also the numerous government sponsored agencies that were created to aid small businesses to compete and participate within the EU and the rest of the world. I attended one stand and it was showcasing a satellite imagery software to monitor mining and environmental projects. It was one of two things i saw that had direct relationship to the mineral resources sector that I seem to live in. However, the lady explained to me what they do and I wondered if we had anything like that in Australia. They were called Catapult – Satellite Applications ( https://sa.catapult.org.uk/about-us/ ) and they were one of 6 or 7 other catapults in the UK. There was one for different “sectors”. Then there was the daily Investor Pitch which was the organized by the UK Business Angels Associations ( https://www.ukbaa.org.uk/ ). These talks were the best thing about the whole festival. I found myself a comfortable couch (yes, they had one) and I sat down and listened to a myraid of 5 minute talks on everything from IT to Hemp building products. While we are all going through our networking, we were graced with the company of Prince William. Apart from the great talks and networking, the 2 weeks had other enjoyable parts, such as my trip around Manchester and Liverpool, my scenery along the journey by train from Manchester to Liverpool and my trip to Anfield… Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

Just went on a trip to the Pilbara for a short job with a client and I had forgotten how beautiful this place was, especially in winter. Arriving on a Friday, I did the usual visit the office, drop my gear off and then I went looking for my site and drove down the Tom Price bitumen road. “Do or Do Not. There is No Try — Yoda” I remembered the famous quote by Yoda and took off the road to find an obscure turn off before a Floodway sign where it will lead me to a site I have never seen before, that was the directions given… Luckily being an Exploration Geologist, I found it and never got lost like accountants…… After a day of locating drill sites and talking to the appropriate people to clear drill pads, it was back to see what has changed to the township of Karratha. The last time I was in Karratha ( https://goo.gl/maps/chpkAwcWCqL2 ) for a decent time was in 2007. I had a brief stop nine months ago, but we were in the field all day, and all I saw was the night version. My verdict is that they have taken away the swimming pool and built apartments. Apart from that, it is the same with the addition of KFC, Subway and MacDonalds. Oh and excellent pubs/restaurants that charge like a wounded bull :-). The next day was spent making sure all was good with the earthworks, talk to the drillers and more photography. I went wondering outside the drill area, as I always do, to see what I could be drilling into and I came up with these two beauties. At a temperature in the high 20s Celsius, it was as perfect as you can get to do some geological wonderment. The Pilbara in my opinion is one of the best places to work; it just grows on you. The third morning is when I took my first sunrise photos, and it was a good morning. The drillers were a touch late…. 10 am…but who is counting.  Anyway, I enjoyed sitting around the weather and just relaxing, but it would have been good if I could have had a couple of coffee as well. The best part of this trip was the fact that a guy was mapping the area. We had many great discussions on what possibly could be happening here, and I was all ears to his thoughts. I was surprised that I had some excellent insights myself (always under appreciating my talents….). This help is the best part of exploration. “It is a previlage to be an exploration geologist as you get paid to go to places people who pay lots of money will never get to go and experience the wondrous Australian outback.” The job was over in a hurry, and it was back to photography and then having a mellow return to civilisation. I look forward to the next job and hopefully a trip to a nice place and not some boring mine site…… Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

Written by Adam Smith Shoe Ask anyone to share with you what they know about economics and chances are Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will get a mention. Ask an economist what is GDP in private, and you will hear that it is a lousy measure but better than nothing. GDP has been around long enough to provide relativity for analysts, commentators and joe-public alike. But it is still a lousy way to measure. Here’s why. I refer to the three letter GDP acronym as a measure that “Grossly Deceives People.” One and all sell it as THE measure of economic health to all and sundry. In reality, it is an easily gamed measure that incentivises poor choice and compounds mal-investment. Take Australia’s record 24+ years of uninterrupted positive GDP. Politicians in government spruik this as a miracle of fiscal government engineering. How long? Note how the line stays above zero after 1992 in the above chart. Peel back the GDP numbers, like most economic measures, and the miracle is how miraculous politicians have been in getting away with the GDP deceit. For the average person a good outcome is to be able to get on with life, contribute their bit, have some R&R in between, and accumulate some wealth. Pretty basic stuff. One would “think out loud” (sic.) that a quarter of a century of faultless positive GDP would translate into a citizens paradise. Surely a nation of utopian wonderment? Far from it, and the public is waking up to the GDP deceit; too late for many. Manipulating the GDP spin is easy. For example, as GDP goes up, so too goes up the nation’s wealth. Great! Take that growing wealth and divide by the population number means not so great for Australia. You see aggregates like GDP are deceitful unless pulled apart and put through comparative analysis. A stagnant population with upward GDP is a population where the benefits per-capita are going up. That’s a good thing; only that is not what happens in Australia. True, GDP has been positive for 25 years or so, but so too has net immigration. And the “net” of net migration dispersal across Australia is narrowed to two cities; Sydney and Melbourne. That means GDP for these population centres in NSW and Victoria is excellent, per-capita GDP, not so. Immigration is just another of the three card tricks in the GDP game. Add more people to a country, and you can add the new arrivals as a percentage directly to the GDP number. What? If GDP was stagnant at 0%, but you allow an influx of migrants, adding 1.5% to the population total, guess what? GDP goes from 0% to +1.5%. Clever isn’t it. Population growth through net positive internal population growth plus positive overseas migration to Australia has subsumed any clarity GDP measurements can provide business and the general public. Back out population stuffing from the GDP number and Australia looks like an ossified economy creeping to a halt. As I type this Australia’s population will reach 25 million souls; 30 years ahead of schedule. Thanks to bringing forward population growth to support the positive GDP narrative, GDP has remained upward, even though Government as a share of the economy now makes up 25% of activity. (Federal – ex-State and Local). Significant manufacturing is all but dead, but for a few outposts, if it wasn’t for extractive industries the whole economy would be transfer payments (welfare), government pork barreling infrastructure like roads, and not much else. What has Australia got to show for 25 years of continuous positive GDP? Infrastructure demand out-weighs the ability of government to deliver or indeed even fund it. One new person requires about $350,000 of immediate infrastructure. Yes, really. All these new souls have brought the miraculous GDP growth rate to a tipping point where growth can’t keep pace for per capita benefits to wash through. Combine the cost per person in new infrastructure demand and it the word Ponzi scheme comes to mind. GDP based on population stuffing ignores positive and negative “externalities”; a clever economists’ word to describe the unseen impacts of an outcome. Constant positive GDP has given rise, in concert with lower inflation, to cheap interest rates. The negative externality of cheap debt causes the maximalist behaviour in house owners; borrowing up to their eyeballs to “climb the property ladder”. Population stuffing has created demand for housing, add low-interest rates, and you get a housing boom, great if you are an existing owner, not so if you aspire to be one. For some, owning a home means moving State or relocating to regional centres far away from familiar family and friendship ties. Theoretically possible, but in an age of me, me, me, there’s little chance we will see wholesale migration out of the bulging State capital in NSW or Victoria any time soon. Positive GDP, great for housing but only if you can afford it. GDP masks productivity changes too. Australia’s productivity index is flattening out at 100. That’s terrible news; productivity should be the primary driver of positive GDP (The P is Product). A quarter of a century of comfortable economic conditions gives rise to inefficiency and idleness. Australia’s workers are going backwards in productivity, at a time when the machine age is encroaching on workers one and all. Not a healthy combination. Negative GDP means recession and recessions are aren’t they? Well, yes recessions are bad, Western Australia has been in one for four years, but thanks to seasonal adjustment revised numbers – another of the card tricks on offer. The data for WA GDP at a State level is massaged monthly so that no two following measures come out negative, thanks to revising the previous one every time the new one comes out. Don’t believe me? Check it out yourself. Laughable. The recession in WA has left households in negative equity territory, retail sales flat to negative and unemployment at around 6-7% depending on the workforce participation rate changes. Greater efficiency and less price gouging are positives for WA out of the four-year contraction in the State economy. Want a house built? Now is the time, the fat in the building industry is gone, gone, gone. For WA the GDP con has delivered a recessionary environment that encourages efficient allocation of resources. Not so in the East. Light rail in Sydney, road contract cancellations with billion-dollar penalties etc, the “other side” of the Federated States and Territories is living in an altered universe. Eventually, the GDP game will be up, no amount of population stuffing and gaming the system can keep it together. Jobs growth is another favourite. Politicians think politicians create jobs. No, they don’t, sorry for the truth syrup. But in taking the credit for the upside politicians must accept they also take the blame for any contraction too. Insofar as successive Governments have hung their shingle on positive GDP as a thing entirely of their making, any shift to the downside is their fault also. Dream on! But dreams, in this case, will come true, in the next term of Federal Government (3 years) the chances of a recession are pretty high. As such, the winner of the next election might turn out to be the loser if the public doesn’t buy the line that the recession was not their fault. The “Gross Deception of People” is about to get more deceptive. Watch this space. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

I knew about the rush on medicinal cannabis but I did not understand … till now -The Hat In simple English, Cannabinoids are a group of active compounds found in all strains of marijuana. Marijuana contains many chemical compounds that create the different characteristics of the plant. Terpenes provide flavours and aromas, while chlorophyll in the leaves makes the plant green. But the essential chemicals in marijuana are the cannabinoids. This link ( https://www.leafscience.com/2017/10/25/what-are-cannabinoids/ ) has an excellent explanation of what it is and how it works in a marijuana plant, so I will not go into the detail. I want to talk about what is happening with this word… I know that this is not a new topic and it is well researched. There is even a whole research centre called The Australian Centre for Cannabinoid Clinical and Research Excellence ( https://www.australiancannabinoidresearch.com.au/ ) It’s just something that I think the general public is not aware of, at least aware that there has been a heap of research going on about this new “drug”. Other than that, I have just been living in a cave as I am the only one that has no idea what the fuss is all about. Basic Points Cannabinoids are the chemicals which give the cannabis plant its medical and recreational properties. Cannabinoids like THC and CBD interact with different receptors in the body to produce a wide range of effects, such as feeling high. THC is known for its psychoactive properties and is the reason you feel “high” after ingesting marijuana. CBD is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid and works to counteract the high. CBD also has numerous benefits , such as anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. But what exactly are cannabinoids, and why are they able to interact with the body? The answer has to do with cannabinoid receptors in the endocannabinoid system. Let’s take a more in-depth look at these fascinating compounds. There are more than 113 different cannabinoids in your real plant. THC and CBD are the most prevalent and the most well-understood. Marijuana’s cannabinoids are produced and stored within the trichomes (crystals) of the plant. These trichomes give marijuana flowers their shiny and sparkly appearance (never seen one outside of a photo). While THC and CBD are the most well-known cannabinoids, there are many other cannabinoids in marijuana that offer health benefits. Some of these include cannabigerol (CBG), cannabinol (CBN), and cannabichromene (CBC). I do not profess to know everything about these cannabinoids but from what I have read. It seems that those chemists in this area are having a field day with the possibilities. Good or bad. In summary, its all about how receptors in our system attaching to these cannabinoids in our system and doing chemistry. Interestingly, we humans also produce cannabinoids. Read the link provided. It’s all exciting stuff. What is so fascinating about Cannabinoids? Now as we all know, there is a heap of anti-cancer solutions, but the use of cannabinoids is just too interesting for this rock-licker. This is one very scientific article https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584615001190 that I found. But its just not the anti-cancer, I have seen some videos about its use with Parkinson disease and the result is short of amazing…Being a person who considers the aged with such issues, I am all for this fantastic stuff. I would be very interested in seeing if it can do anything with dementia patients… now this area I am very intimate with, and I tell you, it will make lots of peoples life significantly better. This is the abstract from that paper, It is well-established that cannabinoids exert palliative effects on some cancer-associated symptoms. In addition evidences obtained during the last fifteen years support that these compounds can reduce tumor growth in animal models of cancer. Cannabinoids have been shown to activate an ER-stress related pathway that leads to the stimulation of autophagy-mediated cancer cell death. In addition, cannabinoids inhibit tumor angiogenesis and decrease cancer cell migration. The mechanisms of resistance to cannabinoid anticancer action as well as the possible strategies to develop cannabinoid-based combinational therapies to fight cancer have also started to be explored. In this review we will summarize these observations (that have already helped to set the bases for the development of the first clinical studies to investigate the potential clinical benefit of using cannabinoids in anticancer therapies) and will discuss the possible future avenues of research in this area. In my last blog on Industrial Hemp, I was sparked by this mention of the work on cannabinoid that will push governments to look at more liberal legalisation of the uses and production of Industrial Hemp. I was not sure what that meant and was not even able to pronounce the word… and then it all clicked… so this is what all the fuss is all about on the stock market. A simple Google search will unearth a plethora of information and people can debate the moral and ethical parts of cannabinoid use. I think if we can extract these “things” naturally and it is a good thing, I am all for it. Interestingly there is a video where one researcher mentioned a study completed where they showed that heavy smokers of “ganja” showed a negative chance of cancer. Heavy smokers of tobacco were 10-fold or 20-fold positive for contracting lung cancer. Whether this is Real or Not, I will leave the decision to DYOR. source: https://atlasofscience.org/the-safety-and-toxicology-of-cannabinoids/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584615001190 Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

Late 2017, I met up with an associate of mine who told me that he was working on a very interesting project, conceptual in manner, using new theories and using recently released information from the Mines Department. He told me that it was in the Wheatbelt areas. I was thinking that this is farm land… people grow wheat on these farms… sure there were some history but there are a lot of these isolated discoveries that were there but nobody would have thought to go and chase them….. As usual, we parted ways and i never followed up…cause I was too lazy or just did not think that it was such a great thing… mind you, at the at that time, the small cap sector was running hot and everything was about Cobalt and the Conglomerate Gold in the Pilbarra. On 15th January, Cygnus Gold Limited (CY5) commenced trading on the ASX. I heard that they raised AUD6M and had over-subscription of another AUD6M. Now I did some research and after another meeting with my friend on another matter, I found that my friend traveled with well healed people…. I am glad he still takes my phone calls 🙂 I met my friend in March 2018 and I remember the stock was still north of 30c. Now, what is most fascinating for me is that the whole concept reminded me of the Gold Road Resources journey. How they ventured into and area that was of similar unloved territory. Now if they made that wild story work, this could be very interesting. Gold Road Resources went after the Yamarna Belt and locked up the whole region. The Yarmana Greenstone Belt was know as something that will not have the endowment of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt as it was not of the same age. There were some mineralisation but the believe was that it will never be of the same scale as the Kalgoorlie Norseman-Wiluna Belt (Figure 1). Even the almighty Western Mining thought it was not going to happen because there was no water….. The Yamarna is approximately 1hr and 45min by air from Perth. There is now no argument that it is major goldfield (Figure 2). The resources that they have found is rather amazing. Remember that the company owns nearly the whole 180km of strike…..Yes, the whole belt………… There are two main players in this wheatbelt region, Cygnus Gold Limited (ASX:CY5) and Explaurum Limited (ASX:EXU). CY5 was an IPO and i believe EXU was a RTO done in mid 2015 (I could be wrong on EXU). EXU: Last Traded 10th August 2018 : $0.086 (MC 41M) CY5: Last traded on 10th August 2018 : $0.089 (Market Cap : $4M) The concept for Cygnus was that the Wheatbelt region geologically was similar to the Kalgoorlie goldfields and this area has largely been overlooked. As in most early exploration strategies (many times this is due to the money telling the geologist what to do), the theory was to chase the low hanging fruits. With so much attention given to the Kalgoorlie Goldfields, Leonora-Leinster-Laverton region, the Murchison, and then the Yandal Belt, the rate of exploration in the Wheatbelt area was lost in space. Like the discovery of the Boddington gold mine in the Darling Range in the early 1980s, good explorers with the sense of adventure will find what they are looking for in the end. Think about Tropicana, Sandfire, and Nova. These are all exploration success stories in the last 10 years. The story for Explaurum is very interesting and as I discovered in my research, the company’s history has a connection to me …. this is so wierd…. Explaurum is basically Auzex Exploration, which was one of the previous owners of the Kirwan Tungsten Project (NZ) which I picked up in my past life as the MD of Siburan Resources Limited. The Board of Explaurum has done this before and they come from the land of the Long White Cloud. While writing this, I am now seeing the familiar names of Chris Baker, John Lawton, Gregor Partington. What a small world. Good to see them have the continued success. I know Chris from my doings in NZ during the Siburan days. In May 2018 the Company announced the completion of a Feasibility Study for the development of Tampia, which confirmed it as a high-margin gold project.  In addition, Explaurum announced an initial Ore Reserve of 7.2 Mt grading 2.09 g/t Au (485,000 oz contained). The all-in sustaining cost (AISC) is A$896 oz for the first two years of operations and A$998 oz over LOM, with 104,000 oz Au produced for each of the first two years of operations. Pre-production Capital Cost estimate is A$119 million (including a $10.8 million contingency) and payback in 18 months from commissioning. As you can see in Figure 6, the resource is not too bad for a wheat farm… 🙂 Tampia was first discovered by BHP in 1987 and exploration in the early to mid 1990s established a high grade, shallow resource. Since the mid 1990s, very little exploration was carried till Explaurum acquired the the project in 2012. Typically, the project was generally unloved due to a poor understanding (maybe lack of market perception) of geology, mineralisation and mettallurgy. Like the famous SAS motto, “Who Dares Wins”, Explaurum took on the challenge and has come up looking like a hero. At this stage, things are looking good and I hope they make it good. I love this kind of stories as I am championing exploration. Its where all the added value are found. The moral of this story is listen to good explorers, back companies that spend money in the ground, and companies that don’t pay their CEO $350,000, even if he is sitting on the drill rig, and doing the real geological stuff ( unless that guy is me….). There are no more easy fruits to pick, if someone is telling you that there is a project where you can easily go and mine it, think again. When I look at all these stories of successful exploration I admire and envy them as that is what this game is all about. Being associated with the teams that had the discovery of Bronzewing and Merlin Diamonds in the first 3 years of my dislocated geological career, I had got the bug since then… the discovery. One day it will happen… 🙂 These are the kinds of investments that I like, cheap and have the potential of finding something substantial and when that happens the magnitude of added value will be high. Imagine that CY5 makes a discovery ? This is practically a virgin goldfield to be discovered. Look at the Gold Road story…. The biggest problem with the industry at this point is that lack of support for real exploration and this shows when you look at the fund raising process. investors like to believe that it is easier to re start a mine than to explore for something new. Remember why the mine shut in the first place. If it could not survive last time, it will not now. The cost of mining is at today’s inflation rate and not back 20 years of whatever years ago. Till next time…. Note: I do not hold any shares in any of the companies mentioned at the time of writing. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

Last week, my wife Sandra and I decided that we would go away for a few days.  The aim of the trip was to find a place that we can just do nothing.  There will be no visits to anything, no wineries, no galleries, no restaurants, no cafes…just accommodation and a good supermarket if required.  The only requirement was that the place had to be nice and comfortable and of course, plenty of nature (well at least some). The result of our search was the Eight Willows Retreat ….. It was fantastic.  We could not have hoped for the best place.  The room was top notch, the kitchen was clean and tidy and we used it for every meal of our trip. The bathroom was the same.  And the place was quiet and absolutely had no distraction. Not even a cafe. The photos of the room below are what we experienced. There was no photoshop happening. (sourced: ( https://www.eightwillowsretreat.com.au ). We wanted a place where we were able to just enjoy each others company and really have a break and we found it. When we arrived on Friday afternoon, we reminded ourselves that we will not go out unless we had to buy supplies.  So we settled down to opening some local wines that we had brought down from my collection. I brought down a Pierro 2005 Fire Gully Shiraz and a Capel Vale Regional Series 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon and the wife brought a dessert wine from the Wise Winery . With one of the most important requirements of comfortable and clean accommodation sorted out, we set out to settled ourselves and started the rest of the holiday.   The aim of this trip was one to enjoy the colder temperatures of the South West and we were not disappointed.  We would have loved a fireplace and that would have been perfect.  We had some very cold nights. When I was booking Eight Willows , I saw a comment and it said that we should visit the Bunbury Fresh Market on our way to buy our supplies. That was a fantastic stroke of luck as when I did stop to check it out, it was a nice surprise. This place is so well stocked and presented and well priced.  The way the whole place was set up just made you feel that you wanted to buy and things are so fresh.  I have driven past this place so many times and never thought about stopping.  It was always the rush to get to the destination. I think this will change now. On Saturday, the next morning was welcomed with a nice black coffee and some nice chilled morning air.  We walked around the place with the camera to get some photos of the native flowers around the accommodation.  Then it was back “home” for a nice warm hearty home cooked breakfast outside on the patio.  This was seriously paradise. No kids, No noise, No rush, No phone calls…just the nice chilly air and the warm wither sun. The rest of the morning we sat down and discussed life things such as family and business.  It just feels like when we are home, things are just doing and no thinking and planning. In some ways when I think back, the trip turned out to be a brainstorming session. Kind of felt like it was one of those company events I read about but never done… 🙂 After doing some work in the morning, we took a trip to Cawaramup to buy some nice ice cream and honey from Gourmet Food Merchant .  This has always been our favourite place to visit as they always have something you want to buy.  I must say that they have a great range of things.  I think most of the range is from the region and this is always the reason for us to visit.  One of the most interesting items that we have bought was from the Truffle Farm, a salt mixture with some truffle.  It is one of my favourite cooking items… 🙂  Spoken like a true convenient cook… 🙂 This is also the first time we took the time to walk around the town of Cawaramup, not that it takes a long time to walk around.  We found a nice place that sells teas and lots of other nice things. It’s like an interconnected shop called Seven Seas Teas .  Very friendly people and they have a good range of teas although we were not interested in the teas, we did end up buying a small pot.  It just gives us a place to walk around and have something to do.After loitering around the town, it was to off to Howard Park.  When we checked into Eight Willows, we were told that Howard Park will give us a bottle of wine if we joined their club.  This is a damn good reason to visit them… 🙂  This we did and we went away with some nice photos and a free bottle of red wine… I know… its the chinaman in me…..   Free is always good.  But we did buy a bottle of Mad Mish Moscato . Prior to picking up our free bottle, we stopped and took some photos. I have always wanted to take some photos of this bridge.  For some unknown reason, I always seem to feel that I had no time to stop for taking photos.  After hanging around Harward Park for a while, it was back home to some finger food and wine drinking. I even ignored a trip to the Grove Distillery which was literally just around the corner from us. The Sunday morning was again a morning of doing nothing but taking on the feeling of freedom and a protein fueled breakfast.  Again I spent more time working and Sandra was doing her knit work, we suddenly realised it was midday.  The problem was that we were not hungry. Determined not to fall into the trap of eating out, we decided to get some fresh air and then come back to Eight Willows before we were starving and will eat anything and everything. Fresh air meant a trip to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory for some free chocolates …again the chinaman ….. and a hot chocolate.  Sandra was commenting that I had been drinking a lot of coffee lately and that I should have something else.  Drinking tea was not going to help as tea has more caffeine than coffee, so hot chocolate it is for a change. Every time I visit this place I always want to take a photo of the Kangaroo Paws out the front.  In fact, I have been taking photos of the Kangaroo Paws since my first visit to this place in 1999.  Not sure why but it seems to be the something I wanted to do :-), must be the bright red colour.  Writing that has made me realise that I have been coming to Margaret River region for holidays since the early 1980s.  Seems to be my comfort place.. :-). After purchasing some chocolate buttons (70% Cocoa), we went back to our place for our version of “tapas” lunch and more wine drinking… 🙂  But seriously, it was a great time of talking, sharing ideas and just connecting without the hustle and bustle of a busy family life. As we were having so much fun, we decided to check if we could extend our stay. Thinking that since we have not seen many people the whole weekend, this is going to be a no-brainer.  To our surprise, the place was booked out !!!! Now that is a sign that this is a place to keep on my come again list. Although it was a disappointment it means we had a great time and this makes us want to come back again. This has been our kind of holiday, just not rushing around and just doing the simple things in life.  When we are doing our rushing around and trying to fit into a life that society seems to dictate, we forget the simple pleasure of just making a cup of coffee and talking to each other. Life is for living and having experiences that make a difference. Sometimes, these simple things add more value to our life than a very expensive item of material. Also check for:- Tungsten – The forgotten Critical Metal Story Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

Bombora is a fantastic story to showcase why we do mineral exploration…  The fact that the someone did the research, applied for the tenement, did the work and ultimately had success is the reason why I am sharing the story. The company involved is Breaker Resources Limited (ASX:BRB). I was reading the news with the headlines “ Breaker back in favour with Bombora gold bounce ” written by Stuart McKinnon .  Upon reading the article, I thought, this is an exciting project.  Hence, I continued spending more time reading it and I was right… it is a fascinating story. The Bombora gold projec t is  100km east of Kalgoorlie.  It is a large tenement holding, 550 km2,  and completely 100% owned by Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB). The cool part of this story is that it has been unexplored for the last 20 years and have had little historical exploration.  The best part of that is that it has only about 5-10m of cover. Over the last 10 years when I have been doing lots of project evaluation, I remember seeing so many projects with the same style. Those characteristics are not unique.  All they needed was some drilling but with the equity market the way it was during those times, they never made it. If you look at the state of the exploration market, there has not been any real exploration since probably the 1990s.  What exploration that did attract money found some great things but in general, there has been very little money going into the market.  However, I did see a lot of money starting to flow into the market in the last 12 months which is very encouraging. Mineral Exploration – The Historical Story On the 17th July 2015 ,  the company announced that the drilling at Lak Roe would commence. The main target was a 4km-long zone of supergene gold mineralisation defined by historical drilling as see in Figure 1 and Figure 2.  Eighty holes were to be drilled for a total of 3,200m.  The historical data consisted of drilling from 1991 to 1998. The maximum depth of mineralisation was within 30m.  Everything else was untested.  Drill chips from these drilling showed clear evidence of sulphide and carbonate alteration within the dolerite (— It is pretty amazing that this project lasted this long and has been ignored over all these years.   There would have been geologists and prospectors walking over these things and nobody had pushed for more work to be done.  And to top it all off, I believe that they picked this project up by applying for it, meaning it was basically free.—).  The was no drilling within the salt lake and the lake cover appeared to be thin as they could see outcrops within the lake to the immediate west of the dolerite. The aim of the drilling is to test any potential structural zones. In a layman’s explanation, the place where there is a weakness (lots of faulting/shearing) will lead to fluid movement and hence mineralisation.  I should have listened more when I was in university in those structural classes… On the 26th August 2015 , Breaker Resources announced that they had found a new Gold System at Lake Roe. The headline news was that they had found bedrock mineralisation (Figure 3).  This means for those who are not clear is that they have found mineralisation in the basement, basically where you want to find it. The comment by the Managing Director of Breaker Resources basically sums up the situation, “the drilling has exceeded all of our expectations. The coherence, grade and extent of mineralisation encountered in a reconnaissance drill program of this nature is unusal and indicates a potentially significant new gold system” Although at this stage I don’t think that anybody is talking about the future or possible future size (well, not formally anyway…) it could become in the future, no can deny that these are encouraging results.  Remember, there is not a resource definition in sight, no JORC (my SEA associate/investors, please take note), but these are super encouraging results.  Remember that it was this kind of persistent exploration that discovered many supersize deposits in the past. The announcement continues to describe that bedrock mineralisation is best developed over a 2km-long zone in an area of structural complexity to the south where it is open along strike.  it has an overall strike length of 5.5km (Figure 4; 8-m drill hole spacing).  Mineralisation is up to 300m wide and hosted by a dolerite unit up to 800m wide (Figure 5). Remember that the initial drilling program was just a look and test thought and the drilling was to “refusal” (basically meaning as far as the drill rig can go, which is usually on top of bedrock) The photos below are from that Phase 1 drilling program. Phase  1 means that there is a Phase 2.  Phase 1 was a test of the new found gold system.  Another 181 holes for just under 8,000m. Results 3.3m @ 3.48 g/t Au 15m @ 1.46 g/t Au 9m @ 1.63 g/t Au Alteration observed 30{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5} of drill holes end in +50ppb Au in relatively fresh rock with grades up to 12.87g/t At this stage, the Phase 2 results, I assume (and we all know what happens when you assume…) that the results would have been more than encouraging and there would probably be some sort of excitement that something big may be around…  I think to put myself in their shoes, I would be thinking what could I do to stuff this all up….. I would be more nervous than excited… 🙂 At this point, the systematic drilling that followed, as we know now, resulted in what is a rather large gold resource. The key point I am trying to make here is that without the drilling program that the management persisted with, there would be no discovery.  The initial work was in applying for the ground as vacant ground in 2014.  Upon grant, the company had progressed in one year, a project with very little historical drilling to a project with a future 1M ounce resource. Breaker Resources Limited listed on the ASX in 2012 and today in 2018, they are looking at a 1M+ ounce gold project within 60km of two mills and 100km from Kalgoorlie.  Now that is what I call a good job.  Looking at the presentation in July 2018, the market cap of the company was around AUD$38M,  I think at the time of writing the market cap was USD$41M. Figure 6 shows clearly the journey taken over the years and the highlights of each significant step taken.  You would think that at this stage of the resource drilling, this share price must be pretty much ready for revaluation.  I will point out that at this stage, I am not a shareholder of this company.  I will say that as I write and as I do my own research,  I am thinking hard about whether I should take a position or not. (Update: 10th September 2018, shares are up 5c as we publish) The overall grade may be low but if they can make money getting it out, it is still AUD1600 an ounce.  We are in Australia and in this part of the Goldfields, I don’t think we will see too many issues with things such as unpronounceable bats, or bees or yellow flowers…etc. However, I do worry about the fact that the resource is at a grade of 1.6g/ t.  I do keep reminding me that Millennium Minerals Limited had very low grade too and they got that to work. Although, I do wonder if all the investors ended up making money over all those years … :-). The super pit is also at the very low grade end but that is a very very big hole in the ground. In the back of my mind, I keep hearing this very important quote ” Grade is King…Grade is King…”  This does worry me but at this point in time, I will say that there is still plenty of time to solve that “issue”.  I don’t mean that it will get better but I think if they can pay themselves into the higher grades and chase those underground grades, it would be a good story.  After all, its all about cost per vertical metre.  Just like selling noodles… I learned a lot when I was with Silverlake Resources .  Listening to the miner’s talk was a good education and I will not say that I know enough to run a mining project. What I learned did give me a good appreciation of what needs to be done, what is required and what is most likely to work or not. As you can see in Figure 7, the location of the project is in good company when it comes to the gold endowment.  In fact, one of my favourite spots in the Kalgoorlie area is the Kurnalpi and the Mount Monger-Randalls district.  Although I think the later is now pretty much taken up by the Silverlake people. ———————————————————————– This reminds me of another place that had bedrock mineralisation and was given up because the directors of the company did not follow through (lack of funds). Now if given a second go with some money for drilling, I am sure they would give it a good go with some drilling. However, that seem unlikely so hopefully one day, someone will find their glory there and make history. ———————————————————————– One of the interesting fact that I like cautiously, is the length of the strike.  Like a rather smart person who used to work with WMC once said, think of an upside-down lightning.  Mineralisation flow to point of least resistance.  Although a large strike is good, I do sometimes think that if it was smaller, then the mineralisation may be more concentrated and not so spread out. Of course, you could also say that if you had a big lightning, then you could have a very concentrated large strike. I agree with that statement also, however, 1M ounces in one spot is a lot easier and cheaper to mine than a large area… 🙂 Another potential issue could be with the fact that 58{e84228ce8c9f7001611629be1db85467cf541581cf1fd5424de0612b3249e3f5} of the resource in the Indicated range. This will mean more drilling and how long that takes will be interesting.  There is definitely a bear in the gold price and how long that bear hangs around may affect the journey.  Mind you with the strengthening of the USD, this could help the gold price. However, if this bear takes the gold price near to that USD$1,000 mark like back in 2014, it would certainly make things interesting when they have to raise money.  Market sentiment seems to follow the USD pricing. Silly as it may seem, but the market seems to do that historically. I know I have mentioned this already but this low-grade thing is important in a bear market. I understand that these days anything above 1g/t is considered good.   Some will point out that there is the large proportion that is of a higher grade, but I only see the global resource grade.  However, I do want to make it clear that I am not negative on the resource.  I am just trying to give a balanced point of view :-). As for the Bell Porter report and all the broker reports that have come up. I treat them with the amount of salt as those that you may find in Lake Roe.  It is a salt lake right ?… if not then the meaning is lost. Like those reports in 2000,  I remember lots of reports telling us how much things such as One Tel would be worth….etc 🙂 That was just me doing a bitch session… 🙂  I am entitled to do that as I am the author….. 🙂 Basically, my experience is that if the margin works during mining, the rest is just administration purpose.  The key is in the simple business of selling your product for a profit. If you can do that, you will be ok. The exploration upside will be the icing on a very tasty cake when the time comes to converting exploration targets into resources and reserves.  I have seen several companies do that and this is what drilling will do for the health of your project. For me, this journey is all about the process of exploration and the excitement of finding it.  Once that is done, the rest is pretty boring.  Important but boring. Well, I hope you have read this far and I have added some value to 5 minutes of your life.  Thanks for reading and I hope you will be around for the next journey. Unless stated, all information is taken from presentation and announcements from www.breakerresources.com.au Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso

A lack of Dementia Awareness in our society is not helping to detect one of the most devastating diseases.  There is a misunderstanding that dementia is all about memory loss.  It is discerning to learn that the average Joe in the street does not know what is dementia. Dementia can strike anyone, and there are so many types of dementia. Research shows that there will be over 65 M people in the world with have dementia by 2030.  This number is expected to increase to 100M by 2050. The Myth Dementia is not a part of Alzheimer’s disease. In actual fact,  it is the opposite, Alzheimer’s disease is a type of Dementia. What is Dementia? According to Dementia Australia , Dementia describes a collection of symptoms that are caused by disorders affecting the brain. It is not one specific disease. Dementia affects thinking, behaviour and the ability to perform everyday tasks. Brain function is affected enough to interfere with the person’s normal social or working life. Types of Dementia According to Dementia Australia, Dementia is the umbrella term for a number of neurological conditions, of which the major symptom includes a global decline in brain function. It is a condition that has been noted in people for hundreds of years. Dementia was a relatively rare occurrence before the 20th century as fewer people lived to old age in pre-industrial society. It was only in the mid 1970s that dementia began to be described as we know it today. We now know dementia is a disease symptom and not a normal part of ageing. There are over 100 diseases that may cause dementia. The most common causes of dementia include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Alzheimer’s disease Vascular dementia Lewy Body disease Frontotemporal dementia Alcohol related dementia Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease HIV associated dementia Misunderstanding  Dementia As I mentioned above, most people, when asked what dementia is, would say memory loss. This thinking is common, and however as you can see from the definition above,  memory loss is just one small part. From my reading and speaking with some researchers in this field, they all agree that misunderstanding dementia will become a sociological problem for our society. As you can see in the Dementia Australia definition, this disease affects the thinking, the behaviour and ability to perform everyday tasks for the sufferers. The person’s typical social or working life is altered as the brain function is changed, and there is no mention of memory loss.  There are many cases of dementia where the person takes on another identity and leaves loved ones , wondering how they have been isolated in that person’s mind. Personal Experience My wife and I are a “carer” for my mother, who has these symptoms.  Memory loss is prevalent, and its the first thing you observe.  However, it’s the other parts that are hard to manage regarding, not understanding what a real situation is and what is not a real (made up in their mind) situation like did they eat that, take that, move that. What is done or spoken is real or made up? This one is tough because they are not telling untruths on purpose, it is just in their mind, and you have to figure out what is real and what is not valid. Managing the paranoia character? The accusation of anything you could think of and even the things you would never have thought you could ever be accused of in normal life 🙂 Patterned behaviour requirements. Using boxes of tissues in days because they need to wipe the plates and utensils that you are going to wash anyway, washing every item of clothing every day of the week, rain, hail or shine? 🙂 People with dementia symptoms are great pattern followers.   We are told to help create as many new things to do as possible. We are told to help the brain create new paths, to promote the brain do new things, and get out of the regular patterns in their mind. I feel that the best way is not to ask them what they want but to give them what is right for them.  I found that simple things such as asking what they want to eat or asking them if they’re going to do this or not, you are sure to get the same answer. What we did not notice. Looking back, I noticed the “weird” behaviour first but just thought that she was being difficult and being this and that… It was not until the memory issue became apparent that we started thinking about the possibility of dementia.  Again, we have fallen straight into the “misunderstanding dementia” syndrome. When we started reading more, we learned about the paranoia and the odd behaviour were caused by dementia. However, it never really became the light bulb moment until much later because we never really understood what we read. This moment is an awareness problem. I am saying that we thought the part where she was difficult, the annoying behaviours, the annoying things that she would say, was her being difficult.  We now realise that these were clear signs of symptoms already.  That was dementia. Family and friends need to understand and accept the way they are now. Sadly, this is not the case in many cases, as people tend to forget the human side of compassion.  I know that this may appear to be a very unfair statement in many cases but its the raw truth.  Dementia patients will be challenging socially, and they will cause your life severe problems. Care Providers (have to mention them…) The carers we have, from the Chung Hua Association , are the best.  All I can say about them is that they make our lives so much better.  And to top it all off, I see them treating my parents with the greatest of care and respect.  I understand that this care is also exceptional in the community centre as well, with the other aged people.  I have seen it with myself. Unfortunately, I can only vouch for the   Chung Hua Association as they are the only ones I have experienced firsthand. I am sure the other care providers are just as good.  I see lots of care providers around, and I am sure they provide exceptional care. My 5 minutes of Fame and Glory A few months ago, the Chung Hua Association ( Aged Care Providers) asked us to go and participate in a survey. Unknowingly we were the centre of attention with The Australian, The ABC and the WA Miniter for the Age Care, Mr Ken Wyatt being there to talk/interview us.  The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Institute for Dementia Research (NNIDR) was making a short video for Dementia awareness, and we were one of the candidates .  I  did not realise that we were the only person who turned up and so we were the single target for all the guests, the VIP guests, and all the media. We also met with Dr Bianca Brijnath and Nick Lee ( both from the National Aging Research Institute) who were doing this project (called Moving Pictures). We learned a lot from speaking to Nick later on in regards to similar behaviour from dementia patients.  It was Nick who talked about needing to give them more pathways, as in disrupting their patterns to help their brains work better. Anyway, we made all these comments to these people.  What surprised me was that everyone was taken back by what we had to say.  I never realised that the lack of awareness was so extensive. I think even Minister Ken Wyatt, was enlightened by our comments.  The whole idea was that we would help make a video.  The video will be distributed to non-English speaking families and friends to help recognise and eventually care for those affected by dementia. The 5 minutes of fame included being written up in the news and being shown on ABC TV. Read the ABC article Read The Australian article. I have included the ABC news segment.  The quality is not the best but its the best I could do 🙂 Something interesting I found this youtube video that I thought I will share.  It is an app that was created to show the world through the eyes of someone with Dementia.  It was created by  AlzheimersResearch UK Read the comments. It is interesting because it gives a sense of what the level and type of care expectations.  The couple is from a loving partner perspective and the character Joe is obviously from another level.  This is what happens when you need care… How we manage our world with Dementia. I will make it implicitly clear at the onset that the following is something that works for us.  There is no argument that every situation is different.  However, I would like to think that the basic principles that I am sharing, will be helpful to other people who are in the same position as Sandra and I. The key for me being in a dementia environment is to make yourself understand that the things that they do are not typical.  Now, this is one of the hardest things to do as it is very reasonable for us humans to react on impulse. We get emotional, and we become sentimental.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, that will make the situation worse.  Ignoring the need to treat them as anything other than being different will detract us from treating them with respect and dignity. I do believe that this is not easy.  Only people who are not in this environment will say otherwise. I have a friend who describes all the same symptoms in her mother. He describes the same “crazy stuff” that is common with dementia.  Generally, the patterns are very similar.  I am no expert in the dementia world, but I will say that every case is different.  Some are severe, and some are milder. The best things to do – what works for us Acceptance and Patience.  We are learning just to let her be who she wants to be in her world.  Again, this is not easy. It is from lots of frustrations, anger and total frustration that has taught us to look at the issue.  However, we have to treat her as she treated us when we were annoying babies, not being able to feed ourselves nor clean ourselves.  This act, I will admit, is a difficult thing to master.  However, as soon as we did that, it became easier for us to deal with the “issues”.  I will say that this is an ongoing learning experience and we are by no means saying that we are saintly and perfect… 🙂 In our case, my parents have been together for 50yrs+, and as far back as I can remember, they were a do everything together couple.  Hence, my mother is the one who cares and does everything so in her old age; she still looks to do that.  In my mother’s case, she still sees that as her role. When this role is replaced (even partly), the defensive nature of the human being (remember at this stage, the person is in and out of “sanity”) comes out.  So it is tough to understand the real reason for that “weird” reaction. The hard part is that the truth is intermingled with the half-truths and the nontruths. So this mix is challenging. The way we manage is to filter what is necessary so that we can try to find the truth. Those thoughts that we filter as “not important”, We agree with them and ignore. In summary, what works for us is learning to have more patience (more than you ever thought you could have) and ignoring the “annoying” ways.   Ignoring these “annoying” behaviours is an ongoing learning experience for us… :-).  As I have mentioned earlier, the best approach is to do what is right for them and not let them do what they want. Their need to do things that do not make sense will drive the average person bonkers… 🙂 We are lucky… We draw on conversations between friends and associates, and readings from the internet to try and make sense. In our case, I feel that the fact that they are still a couple does shield us from more issues.  My father, who has no dementia symptoms, but has mild Parkinson’s, shield us from those behaviours as he is her source of conversation. In many cases, when there is a single surviving parent, and they have dementia symptoms, I believe that it is more complicated. What’s Happening Now. Just this week, I received an email from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Institute for Dementia Research (NNIDR). The NHMRC was inviting  expressions of interest  from people living with dementia and carers/former carers of people living with dementia to be on their  Consumer and Community Involvement Program Reference Group. I gladly volunteered to see if they would accept me into the Reference Group.  I wanted to join because I feel that it is an excellent way for me to give back to society. — In fact, this prompted me to write this blog as I have the intention to do this for a while now.— The primary purpose for me wanting to join the Reference Group is so that I could give them time and share my exposure to an unfortunate process of growing old.  In truth, there is no possible way for us to improve old respectfully nor in any acceptable, respectful way.  However, a better understanding of what happens to us at that stage of our lives may help the people who will eventually care for us.  I am speaking of the carers that will be the people who will help us finish our life in this world, whoever that may be… HOPEFULLY…. Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions. I have included lots of links to people and organisations, so they are probably going to know more than me.  I would think that people such as Dr Bianca Brijnath and Nick Lee would be the best point of contact, so I am happy to pass your details and questions to them. To conclude this blog, I want to leave with this perfect message made by Alzheimer’s Research UK I think it is a good message to think about… To end this on a positive note, I found a CNN documentary regarding a village in the Netherlands for people with dementia. source: New film project to raise dementia awareness in migrant communities , by  Nicolas Perpitch https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/research/boosting-dementia-research-initiative/nhmrc-national-institute-dementia-research-nnidr https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/language-barrier-an-added-problem-for-families-dealing-with-dementia/news-story/af4b524e1a192fd34766cb91061c3a9a Feature photo Also, Check for: –   Best way to find a Gold Mine : A Mineral Exploration Success Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. www.samso.com.au If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information.  I try and write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value.  It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation see the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and have a need to share your journey, please contact me on noel.ong@samso.com.au . About Samso