News

March 12, 2008

Investors Take A Bite At The Cherry On Alkane’s Cake

By Our Man in Oz

It sounds like a fake Confucian saying, but Minesite’s Man in Oz this week found himself thinking that “sometimes you have to dig deep to scale a mountain”. What triggered this bizarre idea was the near-record share price of a company he has been watching for more than 20 years, Alkane Exploration. It was on February 29th that Alkane traded up to A51.5 cents, almost clearing this century’s peak price of A52.5 cents set back in mid-2003, but still well short of the all-time high of A$3.14 reached in the giddy days of late 1987. The purpose of this trip down memory lane is not simply to demonstrate that Minesite’s Australian scribbler has survived a few booms, but to note that when a company starts setting share price records someone reckons they’ve spotted something significant – and with an explorer that generally means a discovery.

In Alkane’s case the discovery which has re-ignited interest in the company is something very special indeed. So special, that no-one’s quite sure what’s been found because the geological setting is unique. Essentially, Alkane and its “big brother” partner, the U.S. gold giant, Newmont, have drilled into a massively thick gold and zinc structure in western New South Wales. In one of the first deep diamond drill holes punched into the McPhillamys prospect, which is between the towns of Bathurst...