"Adam effectively found it," he told MNN, praising the work of the company's general manager, exploration and business development, Adam McKinnon.

 

McKinnon said Aurelia, then known has YTC Resources, had originally identified the Federation-Dominion area as prospective using geochemistry a decade ago, but drilling identified only minor sulphides.

 

"It was effectively left alone until 2018, when we did some reconnaissance in the area and discovered a gossan at Dominion with some high-grade visible gold," McKinnon said.

 

More than a dozen holes were drilled into Dominion, returning varying intercepts of mostly supergene copper and lead-zinc mineralisation, with accessory silver and gold.

 

In tandem with the drilling a 27km IP geophysical survey was undertaken and pinged a strong anomaly at Federation, 1km away.

 

It was a promising return to regional exploration after a tough few years, where Aurelia's focus was on unravelling its finances, and focusing its attention on Hera, and then absorbing the Peak mine, with exploration funding severely restricted due to the company's covenants. 

 

In early 2019, an eight-hole program intersected broad, near-surface intercepts of high-grade intercepts of zinc and lead mineralisation, with accessory gold, copper, and silver in six of the holes. 

 

Drilling has progressively ramped up since that time, with more than 50,000m drilled so far. 

 

There are now four diamond rigs on the deposit, which has supported two resource estimates and a scoping study, all of which have Clifford and McKinnon excited for Aurelia's future at Hera, which is just 10km away.

 

"The grade of all the metals coming out of Federation are among some of the best in Australia," McKinnon said.

 

"This is absolutely a bigger system than Hera, in terms of tonnes and grade for the metal in the ground.

 

"We've still not found the edges, and we have more targets than drill rigs."

 

McKinnon said Federation was longer, wider, and higher grade at shallow depths than Hera, especially compared to the style of deposits that the Cobar Basin is known for, such as Peak or CSA, which are vertically extensive, with a short strike.

 

Clifford described the resource growth so far as "spectacular", and he's hopeful the next estimate will continue that trajectory when it is released in the near future.

 

There's little doubt that Federation is on the pathway to replace Hera in the Aurelia production portfolio.

 

"Our strategy at the moment, now the shackles are off, is to sweat the assets and explore for near-mine extensions, but we also have tensions with an M&A growth strategy," Clifford said.

 

"Our dollars need to be aimed at the highest return, and at the moment, with our recent exploration successes, the best rate of return is to prioritise Federation and throw everything at it, because it is a highly valuable extension to the Hera complex, where we have a camp, tailings facilities, and a mill.

 

"Hera is, for all intents and purposes, pretty much closed out, and spending $1 on exploration in the shadow of Hera doesn't stack up when we can spend that dollar at Federation."

 

Aurelia is looking at an exploration decline, and has stepped up drilling to support feasibility studies, and maximising resource to reserve conversion.

 

At the same time, the drilling results, its structural geological models, and the intellectual property being developed within McKinnon's team, are being worked on to find the edges of Hera and define prospects in the wider area. 

 

Clifford noted it had been just 2.5 years since discovery, and said Federation would be an amazing standalone discovery in its own right, but leveraging off the existing infrastructure and footprint made it potentially the most responsible environmental mine development in Australia.

 

Recently, Aurelia announced its best ever Federation intercept: 70m at 18.4% lead-zinc, 0.2 grams per tonne gold and 0.5% copper from 583m, including 17.8m at 45.6% lead-zinc and 1.1% copper; and 4.6m at 51.9% lead-zinc and 0.1gpt gold from 542m, over two additional zones of 7m at 19% lead-zinc from 612m and 8m at 11.7% from 624m.

 

With some of the best widths and tenors to date, and high-grade gold elsewhere within the deposit, Clifford said Federation just continued to improve and grow, particularly to the southwest and at depth. 

 

Federation has indicated and inferred resources totalling 3.5Mt at 5.5% lead, 9.8% zinc, 1.4gpt gold, 7gpt silver and 0.3% copper for 192,000t lead, 342,000t zinc, 815,000 ounces silver, 158,000oz gold, and 10,000t copper that was upgraded in February. 

 

The feasibility study and maiden reserve estimate are targeted for completion by mid-2022.

 

As an explorationist, McKinnon said his big takeaway from Federation's discovery, was there could be real value in persisting with exploration in prospective areas, as YTC's drilling had missed encountering mineralisation by just metres.

 

Dominion is still incredibly prospective, and will eventually be examined again.

 

Aurelia's stock has traded between 34.5-63.6c over the past year, and was trad trading at 46c, valuing it $562 million.