Artemis Resources Ord Shs ARTTF

Pilbara nugget mania a goldmine for metal detector suppliers

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Pilbara Prospecting Supplies owner Ray Attard has been doing a roaring trade. Picture: Margaret Bertling

• The Australian
• 12:00AM October 28, 2017

 

• Paul Garvey
  
  Resources reporter
  Perth
  
  

Ray Attard has lived in the Pilbara for the best part of 40 years but has never seen anything quite like this. Mr Attard runs Pilbara Prospecting Supplies in Karratha and for the past few months has been doing a roaring trade in metal detectors as would-be gold hunters try to make the most of the astounding gold nugget frenzy now gripping the region.

There have been far bigger resources booms in the Pilbara than the current gold rush but none has inspired the sort of prospecting fever spreading through the residents of Karratha and Port Hedland.

Mr Attard has been selling at least a couple of his top-of-the-range $10,000 metal detectors each week since Canadian company Novo Resources captured the market’s attention with its claim that it has discovered a nuggety gold system analogous to South Africa’s world-beating Witwatersrand gold basin sitting at the surface and right on the doorstep of the Pilbara’s two biggest towns.

Despite deep and widespread scepticism about the technical merits of Novo’s find, enchanted investors have pushed Novo’s shares from 80c in July to as high as $8.55 and its market cap has gone past $2.4bn.

Over a dozen Australian-listed juniors have capitalised on the rush, staking ground, dusting off old projects and using the excitement to raise precious new capital. They’ve also attracted some prominent backers, with none other than Sheikh Maktoum Hasher al Maktoum — a member of Dubai’s super-rich ruling family — this week joining the board of Artemis Resources, Novo’s joint venture partner. It’s not just listed companies making the most of the excitement.

Mr Attard’s shop is enjoying its best trading conditions since the height of the boom. The hardest part has been keeping up with demand — he ran out of stock last week.
“Everyone thinks there’re nuggets out there like jelly beans, that you just go out there with a metal detector, start swinging and pick them up,” Mr Attard told The Weekend Australian. “It’s not that simple and we tell people that, but everyone makes up their own mind, gets the cash and come and buy detectors anyway.”

Among the Pilbara locals flocking to Mr Attard’s store in Karratha’s dusty industrial precinct have been some notable shoppers. Among the clientele to come through Mr Attard’s store recently was Canadian billionaire Eric Sprott, the founder of giant Canadian resources fund of the same name and a big investor in Novo. (Sprott, Mr Attard says, bought a few thousand dollars’ worth of gold nuggets from the shop.) Since his visit, Sprott and his companies have taken positions or struck agreements with other Pilbara gold plays including Kairos Minerals and De Grey Mining.