Tony Rovira’s latest gold and copper chess move has been revealed

After making once in a lifetime discoveries at Azure Minerals and Jubilee, Tony Rovira is chasing a third with Solara Minerals.

Tony Rovira is back in the exploration game as Solara Minerals makes its copper and gold move. Pic: Getty Images

• Tony Rovira is back, baby, securing copper and gold exploration ground in the shadow of the famous DeGrussa copper mine for his new venture Solara Minerals

• The former Azure Minerals chief says exploration by the $5bn miner left a string of undrilled, walk up targets to test

• Could be the latest in a string of success stories for the famed geologist, credited with the world class Cosmos nickel and Andover lithium finds

Tony Rovira has made a career out of finding world class deposits hiding in plain sight.

A two-time AMEC Prospector Award winner who knows the sweat, blood and tears that build the foundations of a major discovery, his discography includes mega hits like the Andover lithium deposit near Roebourne in WA's Pilbara and Cosmos nickel complex west of Leinster.

Both were found or developed as their respective markets boomed thanks to the electric vehicle revolution and China's economic miracle respectively.

Could the former Azure Minerals chief, who exited that company on a high via a $1.7bn cash takeover by SQM and Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting, find his timing is just as perfect at his new explorer Solara Minerals (ASX:SLA)?

The geologist's geologist Rovira stepped into the role as executive director at Solara in June, with experienced executive and former ASX exploration CEO Jennifer Neild also coming on board as general manager this month.

And the transformation of the former Lycaon Resources is now complete, with the acquisition of the DeGrussa West and Wilgeena projects on the northern tip of the WA's vaunted Murchison gold field.

With it, Solara cracks opens the file again on one of WA's biggest exploration mysteries – whether another DeGrussa exists, the shock copper find that turned Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) from a junior tiddler into a $5bn mid-tier.

"I think that's a really good way of putting it, hiding in plain sight, just recognising opportunities which other people may have glossed over in the past," Rovira told Stockhead.

"It was the same at Cosmos, it was the same up at Andover as well, previous explorers had generated anomalies which had never been followed up and we see the same situation happening on some of the ground that we've picked up now."

Tony Rovira is back in an executive role for the first time since the $1.7bn sale of Azure Minerals. Pic: Supplied

Gold, copper, (Sand)fire

Gold and copper are no doubt, like lithium was when Azure made its fateful Andover discovery in 2023, the markets to be in right now.

The precious metal is trading above US$3300/oz, with the shaky geopolitical environment which has fuelled its rise likely to continue.

Copper prices in New York hit all time highs above US$5.50/lb after threatened tariffs on the red metal from Donald Trump's administration were revealed.

Longer term, the supply-demand set-up is as good as any commodity in the market, with falling discovery rates and steeply rising demand out to the middle of the century.

Where Solara has a leg-up is its 310km2 of Bryah Basin ground has already been picked over, but never really drilled into.

Sandfire held it within a vast and ungainly portfolio where it struggled make a genuine follow-up to the 2009 DeGrussa find. That means there are already targets for Solara to analyse.

With its sole focus on Wilgeena and DeGrussa West – 17km on the same strike as the historic copper mine, where SFR outlined 13.8Mt at a mad grade of 4.8% copper and 1.8g/t gold – Solara is better placed to really interrogate their potential.

"This particular portfolio of properties is put together by a group of private explorers," Rovira said.

"And most of the ground has been looked at in some way by Sandfire in the past. But Sandfire had so much ground out there.

"And they were spread so thin that they actually generated targets which were never followed up and there are some of those targets that are on the ground that we've picked up."

DeGrussa West, the initial focus, was the subject of an airborne EM survey in 2009 flown by SFR, which identified the same bedrock conductors as those found a DeGrussa.

SLA has already conducted a ground based EM survey to advance drill targets, which are accessible from station tracks and just waiting on approvals.

Tony Rovira is back, and his new play is copper nd gold in the Bryah Basin. Pic: Solara Minerals

Golden days

There's more than just copper on the menu as well.

DeGrussa and the Monty satellite mine are located nearby.

But so are the 206,000oz Old Highway deposit recently sold by SFR to Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL), with the 3g/t Au orebody to be an important future ore source for its Plutonic gold mine to the north-east.

Catalyst's previously mined Hermes open pit (123,000oz at 1.4g/t), sits between DeGrussa West and the two Wilgeena tenements.

Westgold Resources' (ASX:WGX) Peak Hill (481,000oz at 1.4g/t) is immediately north of Wilgeena, with its 677,000oz Fortnum/Starlight mine and mill further out to the north-west and the historic Horseshoe Lights gold and copper mine in between.

Rovira says the first target to be tested will likely be the EM conductor at DeGrussa West which was identified in its ground EM survey.

But Wilgeena, 15km from Peak Hill and 60 klicks from Fortnum, and located in a region from which 35Moz of gold has been produced, is looking very enticing for standalone gold targets.

"Once again, Sandfire did a lot of reconnaissance type sampling out there and there are rock chips up to 7g/t gold, there are drill hits up to 2.2g/t gold and they were never followed up," he said.

"Go figure."

The purchase consideration is partly performance loaded.

SLA will acquire 100% of the share capital of OD4 Tom Price Pty Ltd for $150,000 cash and 1.25m ordinary SLA shares – $250,000 at today's share price.

Subject to shareholder approval, another 1.5m shares will be issued to the vendors if SLA achieves a drill hit of not less than 20% copper equivalent at a cut-off grade of 0.5% CuEq within three years of wrapping up the deal.

Completion is targeted by the end of this month, with no shareholder approvals required.

SLA shares were down slightly this morning, but are up close to 22% since the start of the year, including 15% over the past month.

Originally published as Tony Rovira’s latest gold and copper chess move has been revealed