According to Chalice Gold Mines managing director Alex Dorsch, the Canadian market is an order of magnitude worse.

He made the comment at Chalice's AGM in response to a shareholder querying whether the company might spin out its Quebec exploration assets into a separate Canadian-listed vehicle.

And the potential good news for the Australian sector has been the excited chatter in the past week or two from big potential new greenfield discoveries in Western Australia and South Australia - albeit two of them feature the world's two biggest mining companies!

Even so, it opens up the possibility of funding avenues opening up for juniors with good stories on the ASX.

Meanwhile, Chalice is getting set to drill two new "large-scale" targets at its' East Cadillac gold project in Quebec (starting January), with the company also about to begin RC drilling (this month) of ground north of Bendigo in Victoria.

Cashed-up Chalice is budgeting to spend about A$8 million in the year ahead, with its cash holdings of circa-$23 million principally a function of its big win in the horn of Africa a few years back.

The company has about 10 geologists working for it under the overall guidance of Dr Kevin Frost, with Patrick Lengyet running the show on the ground in Canada.

Dorsch made the point the company's strategy is to generate district sale targets capable of containing multi-million ounce deposits.

Shares in Chalice were trading this week at 15.5c, capitalising the company at $41 million.