In the offices of Spinifex Exploration N. L. in North Kalgoorlie Petri had finished submitting and discussing his latest work with the management team. General Manager Fred Cooper smiled beneficently at him. ‘Well done, Petri. Yes, a good job well done. Once we finalise the budget next week we’ll be able to allocate funds for both our gold and our nickel projects. The last capital raising was very well supported by the market and our results have been good.’

Petri had found it was not as easy being a consultant geologist as he had hoped or believed possible during the four years after leaving AGO. The boom in mineral exploration that started with the exciting nickel discoveries was continuing. Geologists found employment easily within larger company structures but consulting geologists found themselves competing for the smaller jobs with the junior companies. Once projects were complete there were commonly delays for payment as the companies conserved cash.

Apart from a few smaller contracts, Petri was fortunate to have his long-term retainer with Spinifex Exploration through which he received regular payments. It worked well for him. Not only did he have a good relationship with the manager and other professionals of the company, affectionately known as ‘Spex’ amongst both the geoscientists and the stock market, but also his payments were prompt and generous. Charl du Toit made sure of that.

Petri smiled at Fred and wondered if this was a good time to raise the subject of his new ideas. After all, it was his modelling of the relationship between the unusual ultramafic rocks and the fault structures that had led to Spex taking out title over the most prospective areas. Latecomers surrounded the Spex Prospecting Licences and even AGO was knocking on their doors looking for possible joint ventures.

‘Thanks, Fred. Can I talk to you about some of my ideas for chasing gold in areas that have been ignored to date?’

‘Of course. You always seem to come up with novel concepts. The success we had at Golden Girl has proved they are worth looking at. Charl is really very pleased with our progress and so he should be with the share price almost tripling in the past six months. Come on in to my office.’ The General Manager opened the door to his office and paternalistically put his arm around Petri’s shoulder as he ushered him in.

The offices at Spex were located at the northern end of Brookman Street, the extension of the infamous Hannan Street. Locals joked that it was sex in the south and Spex in the north. The small but adequate offices showed no sign of wasteful expenditure. It was something visiting shareholders and analysts were pleased to see. Too many of the successful, or apparently successful, ‘no liability’ companies spent more money on fancy offices and directors’ benefits than on discovering the minerals they claimed to be the target of their activities.

‘Petri, what’s on your mind?’ Fred Cooper rarely wasted time on pleasantries and got straight to the point.

‘Well, I’ve been thinking about new areas for our gold exploration. All the gold found so far has been associated with the greenstone belts and nearly all the ground has been pegged.’

‘Let’s have a look at the maps.’ Cooper pulled out a map roll and spread it out on the desk. It showed the geology of the goldfields and the patchwork pattern of licences scattered over the area.

‘Well, look at these elongate outcrops of greenstones.’ Petri traced the stripes of green on the map with his index finger.

‘A deliberate choice of colour by the geologists, I should think,’ chuckled Cooper.

‘It really makes them stand out against the pink of the surrounding ancient granites of the Yilgarn Block.’

‘Go on, tell me your idea. You’re not going to suggest that we go and explore in those granites, are you?’

‘No. No. Not at all.’ Now it was Petri’s turn to laugh. ‘But those greenstones have been exposed and eroded for many millions of years yet they are still gold-rich. Rich enough to host big mines.’

‘Yes, I heard that recent dating indicated that they are some of the oldest rocks in the world, more than three and a half thousand million years. So, what are you getting at?’

Petri nodded. ‘That’s right. So if the rocks were eroded over a large chunk of that time, where did all the gold go?’

‘You mean deposited somewhere else, like the South African and Canadian placer deposits?’

‘Exactly. The gold must have been transported to somewhere as the rivers eroded the host rocks. We know the west was very much wetter and the rivers more vigorous in the past, even the recent past, than now.’

‘So, what, exactly, is your point?’

Petri sat down on the opposite side of the desk and unrolled another map showing the geology of Western Australia and also the ancient drainage patterns of rivers long since dry.

‘Look here,’ he said and he started to explain his theory.