The company appointed former Spartan boss Simon Lawson as chairman-elect, former Spartan chief operating officer Craig Jones as immediate CEO and managing director-elect, and former Spartan executive director David Coyne as non-executive director-elect.

Former Spartan exploration manager Monty Graham is also joining Torque.

It’s the same team behind the high-grade Never Never discovery, which transformed Spartan from a struggling low-grade gold miner into an ASX 200 developer which was acquired by Ramelius Resources for A$2.5 billion last year. 

Location, location, location

Torque’s flagship asset is the Paris gold project, south of Kalgoorlie, which has a shallow resource of 250,000 ounces of gold at 3.1 grams per tonne gold.

Lawson said he was attracted to Torque due to the 57km of strike across its substantial 1200sqkm land package.

“Only six kilometres of it has been properly tested in any way, shape or form,” he said. 

“How can that be? I don’t know, because it’s in the heart of one of the most prolific gold discovery and development regions you’ve ever seen.”

Paris sits right next to the multimillion-ounce St Ives operation, which is one of global major Gold Fields’ top operations.

“There are tens of millions of ounces across the road, literally, north along strike, along the same structural corridor as St Ives,” Lawson said. 

“I don’t often use nearology as a reason for why there should be multiple millions of ounces on the ground that we now hold, but that is a really good reason. 

“And given that there are only 250,000 ounces at 3.1[g/t] declared, but there’s been 18 months of drilling and 20,000m of drilling done since they updated that resource, it is just insane how much latent upside there is sitting just in the database.”

Well-funded

The incoming directors and management team will cornerstone a A$3 million capital raise which will give Torque around A$19 million to accelerate exploration.

The company also has some in-the-money options expiring in May which should take its cash balance to just over A$20 million.

Torque has two drill rigs on site now, with most recent results returning 20m at 5.8g/t gold from 222m, including 7m at 13.5g/t gold.

“Two RC rigs and we’re bringing in a diamond rig and we’re just going to get stuck in,” Lawson said. 

“Obviously we want to realise some of the value that’s sitting within the company and get that share price really humming along and then support that drilling effort as we go forward. 

“But 250,000 ounces becomes a million pretty quickly, and, having done this a few times, and looking at this geology, there is no reason to suggest that that’s not going to happen. 

“I see, within the next three years, the ability to grow this into a multimillion-ounce company in the heartland of Aussie gold, arguably some of the best real estate going around.”

Canaccord Genuity analyst Paul Howard agrees.

“Our exploration target model sees potential for more than 1.6 million ounces to be defined across the project area over time,” he said last week. 

“We welcome the addition of the incoming team, with a proven track record of exploration success, and eagerly await release of a detailed exploration strategy.”

Optionality

Paris’ location near multiple operating mills gives Torque plenty of future optionality.

Lawson said the company could control its own destiny.

“We’re just going to go in there and do what we’ve done before and manage our own outcomes, and that is to grow the resource and drill and discover and make it bigger and better and higher grade than anything anyone else is holding, and if that results in a conversation for part of the company or the whole company, doesn’t really matter,” Lawson said.

“The guy that’s running the company, Craig, has the ability, and has already demonstrated several times that he can build mines, so if we take it into production, if that’s the decision we make, within two or three years’ time, or whatever the timeframe is, we’ll build it.

“Our primary goal is to make this thing as big and juicy and high grade as possible, which will give us real options to either build it ourselves or someone else takes it off us.”

News of the new board and management team pushed Torque’s share price last week to an all-time high of 50c.

While the stock has come off since, in line with broader market weakness, Canaccord’s Howard has a speculative buy rating and 55c price target.

“Nobody could have imagined A$7000 Aussie gold a few years ago. They just would have thought you were crazy,” Lawson said.

“We just think it’s just a great time to just keep your head down and keep drilling and getting the results and build that momentum, and really bring home another good, high-grade gold story.”