The company undoubtedly has its hands full at the moment, what with being on the cusp of transitioning from an explorer to an explorer/developer via its Old Pirate gold tenement in the relatively underexplored Tanami-Arunta region of the Northern Territory.

ABM recently posted a maiden indicated and inferred resource for Old Pirate at the Twin Bonanza Gold Camp project of 1.67 million tonnes averaging 7.95 grams per tonne of gold for 427,400 ounces, including 486,000 tonnes averaging 14.84gpt gold for 231,600oz.

In addition, ABM received positive results from a scoping study on the project which proved it was feasible on a small scale.

The results on a stage 1 development at Old Pirate were based on an onsite gravity processing rate of up to 450,000 tonnes per annum showing it would recover 261,000oz gold from modelled inferred and indicated resources of 832,000t grading 11.5gpt gold for a contained 308,000oz.

The cost of a 450,000tpa plant was estimated at $A15 million with an additional $12 million required for a power plant, camp facilities, equipment and site works.

ABM managing director Darren Holden told MiningNewsPremium.net that Old Pirate was undoubtedly the company’s flagship project because it was the project most likely to develop into an operating mine.

“We think it’s one of the last high-grade vein systems in Australia at surface that has no old workings,” Holden said.

“Some people have joked that maybe its Lasseter’s Reef,” he added, referring to the 1897 gold discovery in central Australia which to this day remains an enigma.

While much mystery surrounds the story of Lasseter’s Reef, there is no question the NT’s Tanami region is unchartered territory for juniors tapping into the gold region.

ABM Resources is currently sitting alongside major gold player Newmont Mining, as well as Tanami Gold which operates the Coyote gold mine 45km to the northwest of Old Pirate.

While gold in the Tanami region was first discovered in the early 1900s, the area remains relatively undeveloped compared with other gold hubs such as Kalgoorlie.

Holden believes ABM remains unchallenged as a gold junior in the region because of two things.

For one there hasn’t been much of a gold rush in the area because there isn’t too much ground available and two, exploration licences in the area can take several years to obtain because a majority of the land is governed under the 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

While this has the potential to scare fellow juniors from tapping into the region, ABM is moving ahead to becoming the area’s next junior gold developer.

“We’ve gone aggressive and hard and we’ve made discoveries,” Holden said.

In the near-term, ABM will ramp up exploration at Old Pirate in the hope of extending the quartz veins and updating the inferred resource to an indicated resource.

“Our core target at Old Pirate is to really assess how big this can be,” Holden said.

From there a feasibility study will be undertaken or ABM will enter into an agreement with another party to help move the project forward.

While a timeframe to production has not yet been released into the public domain, Holden said the small gravity plant had the potential to be up and running in a couple of months.

He said the market could expect a lot more drill results and a lot more trenching results from Old Pirate considering its field team was drilling about 400m a day.

“In many respects the scoping study and the resource are already out of date,” Holden laments.

While many junior companies would put time, money and effort into the project that would likely be a mine first, Holden said ABM was still committed to its other resource works and advance discoveries in Tanami-Arunta which include the Hyperion and Buccaneer projects.

“We strongly believe in optionality,” Holden said.

ABM is just shy of a month until kicking off its exploration campaign at Old Pirate and its other tenements in Tanami-Arunta and Holden believes there will be the opportunity to target multi-million ounce systems.

“I think we have a real shot at it,” Holden said.

With some exciting projects in the pipeline and near-term development at Old Pirate likely, Holden said the next few months would help the company determine exactly what it was dealing with.

“At the end of the day we first need to understand how big this [Old Pirate] can be,” Holden said.

“We’ve found how small it isn’t but we haven’t found out how big it can be.”