THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Rather than bombard his audience with endless drill results from his company’s exciting Rockford polymetallic play in remote Western Australia, Legend Mining (ASX: LED) boss Mark Wilson instead told this year’s Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder why the resources house was such a solid investment opportunity. By Mark Fraser

Speaking towards the end of the conference’s second day, Wilson was quick to point out that one of the junior’s main aims was to become a producer within five years of discovery.

If this wish becomes a reality, Legend looks set to join Australia’s mining fraternity sometime towards the end of 2022.

“That’s what nickel is all about,” Wilson noted.

The WA-based company, he said, also knew what direction it was heading vis-à-vis its potential customer base, with nickel technologies now being key in the production of electric vehicles.

“Despite the fact that 70 per cent of the use for nickel is in the stainless steel market, I really think the future of these nickel sulphides that we are looking for is in the battery market,” Wilson explained.

Located in the emerging Fraser Range district some 300 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Rockford contains three possible mineralisation types – Nova-style nickel/copper, volcanogenic massive sulphide-hosted copper/zinc/silver and Tropicana-lookalike gold.

As it stands, Legend is one of four players now firmly established in the highly prospective Fraser Zone. Furthermore, with its 3,088 square kilometres of holdings, it is the largest land holder within this group, controlling some 19 per cent of the area.

Amongst the many points raised by the upbeat Wilson during his presentation was the fact that one of these companies – Sirius Resources (ASX: SIR) – had seen its market capitalisation jump from $10 million to $1.8 billion in just three years following its discovery of the Nova nickel/copper/cobalt deposit, which sits 120km north-east of Rockford within a 46sqkm land package.

“I think I rest my case,” he said.

Another interesting piece of information Wilson put to his Diggers & Dealers’ audience was the observation that the Thompson Nickel Belt of northern Manitoba in Canada was the same size as Legend’s Fraser Zone holdings.

“It’s got 2.7 million tonnes of nickel endowment – there’s 300,000 tonnes here – and I’m reliably informed by a Kiwi accountant, which is bit of a tricky statement, that 1.6 million tonnes has come out of Kambalda, just to give you a bit of an idea of the potential of this project,” Wilson said.

“And if you look at Legend’s orange landholding, you’ll see that we control the entire part of that central gravity anomaly, which to our mind is no doubt the best ground in the Fraser Range.”

The junior has so far identified seven prospects – Magnus, Octagonal, Worsley, Hurley, Crean, Shackleton and Mawson – with the latter generating quite a bit of excitement since its discovery in December 2019.

“Legend is not a one trick pony at Mawson – I think Hurley is the next one (based on recent electromagnetic geophysics) … and that’s where I would expect our second ranking project to come,” Wilson said.

At the end of the day, the exploration house enjoyed a current market capitalisation of $400 million, “a series of options that are all in the money (and) that over the next couple of years will deliver another $13 odd million to our treasury” as well as cash and receivables worth $31.5 million.

In addition, the company was unique in the ASX-listed junior space insofar as it was concentrating on just the one project.

“The story I hope you have heard from me … is (Legend has) a highly prospective project, committed people, we’re well-funded, we’re systematic, we’ll go the distance and we’re absolutely committed to growing shareholder value,” Wilson added.