Queensland-based Carpentaria Exploration is set to list on the ASX at the beginning of November after closing its IPO early, oversubscribed. The track records of its executives are a key factor.

Carpentaria will be headed by a team of highly experienced geoscientists who will focus the company’s exploration efforts on tenements in both Queensland and New South Wales.

Nick Sheard has been making headlines in the exploration business for over 30 years. As chief geophysicist and exploration manager, Nick has headed up teams for mining giants including MIM and Inco. His expertise has taken him across Australia, the Americas, Asia and Africa.

Now he is happy to be back in Australia, where he will be leading Carpentaria Exploration as executive chairman in a focused search for gold, copper, nickel and uranium.

“It’s really quite exciting for me; I’ve just returned from Canada to start work back in Brisbane, based in Queensland and working in Queensland and New South Wales,” Nick says.

“I believe that both Queensland and New South Wales are under-explored, so it’s a great opportunity to make major discoveries which are going to help obviously our company, but also Queensland and New South Wales and bring mining back to these states.”

Sheard’s assurance of the potential in these states to produce significant exploration results has been echoed by the confidence shown in Carpentaria during its IPO in September and October.

“In terms of investor confidence we were really pleased that Carpentaria Exploration was oversubscribed, which allowed us to close our IPO early,” Nick says.

Despite the mining industry’s current shortage of top geoscientists, Carpentaria has not only secured the services of Nick Sheard, but has also attracted experienced explorer, data processing and interpretation expert John Donohue, who will be moving from Canada to become Carpentaria’s Chief Geoscientist.

The team will be headed up by Exploration Manager Doug Brewster, who most recently worked as a Brisbane-based independent consultant, providing exploration evaluation advice on mineral potential to a variety of companies.

“My background is that I’m a tertiary qualified geologist with over 20 years mineral exploration experience. I’ve worked for some major companies, including Rio Tinto and Delta Gold,” Doug says.

Carpentaria’s in-house expertise has allowed the company to capitalise on Queensland and New South Wales’s recently digitised, extensive historical exploration records. Nick Sheard believes that superior analysis of these complex data sets will allow Carpentaria to significantly reduce its exploration risk.

“There is a wealth of information in that data, and by correct and good use of it you can get into areas where surprisingly there hasn’t been much exploration done, and where there is previous mineralisation being located, so it reduces your exploration risk quite dramatically at the early stages of exploration,” Nick says.

Exploration manager Brewster explains the philosophy behind Carpentaria’s exploration approach:

“Carpentaria’s exploration philosophy is to initially focus on areas with relatively thin post mineral cover or exposure. This way it enables us to leverage our geological and geophysical expertise to maximum effect because we can quickly and inexpensively investigate targets.”

Carpentaria has acquired a suite of exploration properties across eastern Australia, many of which were previously held by Giralia Resources. Nick Sheard hopes that three of these leases in particular, will soon present significant results.

“In Carpentaria we have our central New South Wales Project, which consists of both the Combaning and Glen Isla exploration leases,” Nick says.

“We’re looking mainly for gold, with some copper and or nickel in these project areas. We’re focusing on these areas because they have known mineralised occurrences of both gold and gold-nickel. With quick discovery, we will be able to turn it from an exploration project into an operating and producing mine within four years.

“Concurrent with the exploration programmes in central New South Wales we have our Mt Agate project up in Queensland, just south of Cloncurry. This is a very prospective area in the Mt Isa/Cloncurry belt and we’re very lucky to have a large tenement with numerous targets there.

“At Mt Agate we will be doing some targeting using ground geophysics and then hopefully proceeding to drilling in March, April after the rainy season.”

It is hoped that drilling will begin even earlier in New South Wales, with a rig set to begin work at Glen Isla in late December. This rapid progression into the drilling phase is in line with Carpentaria’s exploration strategy of focusing money into the ground and rapidly testing and turning over targets.”

Nick Sheard says future work is just as important as current projects.

“To be a successful exploration company, I firmly believe you have to have a strong pipeline of projects,” he says.

“These projects range from the grassroots through to the advanced projects when you’re delineating ore bodies. If any part of that pipeline’s empty you can be wasting time trying to fill it up.

“In Carpentaria we’re very lucky; we’ve got this sweep of projects and with the project generative power that we have within our company we can keep that pipeline full. And furthermore in our budgets, we have a work allocation budget for buying into new businesses or into projects that can help fill up that pipeline.

“At Carpentaria, our philosophy is to put money into the ground. We’re doing this by maintaining a small team, a small office and contracting out the services as required.

“By investing in Carpentaria, you’re investing in a great team, you’re investing in a company that’s got great projects. We believe that by drilling in a very short timeframe we will convert into ore bodies that will become operating mines in the near future.”