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Helix Resources Implements New Geophysics to Outline Drill Targets at Canbelego

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Helix Resources (ASX: HLX) scored two new copper anomalies after trialling an Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical survey technique at the company’s Canbelego Joint Venture with Aeris Resources (ASX: AIS) near Cobar in New South Wales.

Helix Resources trialled the new IP geophysical survey technique at the Canbelego Main Lode Mineral Resource.

The company said the results from the survey had clearly identify the ‘known’ Canbelego copper deposit while highlighting two new chargeable IP anomalies that have never been drilled.

Helix conducted the IP survey over the Canbelego copper deposit as well as the Bijoux copper prospect.

At Canbelego the survey consisted of five 1.5km long survey lines over the Main Lode Mineral Resource and Western Lodes mineralisation.

Four lines were parallel across the mineralisation with the fifth line northeast of the Main Lode across two VTEM anomalies.

The Bijoux survey consisted of one 1.5km long line across recently discovered oxide and copper sulphide mineralisation in RC drillholes.

“While it is still early days, the application of IP geophysics is looking like a game-changer for Helix and our exploration of the Rochford Trend,” Helix Resources technical director Kylie Prendergast said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Copper mineralisation occurs as ‘sulphide’ minerals in either disseminated, vein stockworks or sometimes massive-sulphide textures.

“The latter can be conductive and to date we have relied on measuring that massive, conductive feature utilising ‘electromagnetic’ or ‘EM’ survey techniques to identify potential deposits.

“However, at Bijoux we intersected copper sulphides at grades well above one per cent copper but occurring as veins and disseminations and hence unlikely to give an EM response.

“We will now move on to build a fuller picture of the Rochford Trend copper potential by expanding to a wide coverage ‘gradient array IP’ geophysical survey over known surface copper anomalies and where drillholes have intersected copper sulphide mineralisation, such as the Cabellero and Bijoux prospects.

“This is an exciting development; fast-tracking Helix on a discovery pathway while saving money and optimising our drill targeting.”

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Lithium Explorers Rebut Recent Sentiment

February 28, 2024/in Commodity Capers, Resources Roadhouse /by Wally Graham

COMMODITY CAPERS: Although there has been some pain for lithium stocks of late, it seems the essential battery starter is doing its best to escape from being clumped in with other underperforming commodities.

This week some of the bigger players in the lithium space enjoyed some slight gains with IGO (up 4.9 per cent) and Pilbara Minerals (up 6.3 per cent) on Wednesday helping to lead the mining sector (up 0.5 per cent) higher on that particular day.

There was also plenty of action in amongst the smaller participants during the week who, it seems, are prepared to take on market sentiment and not succumb like their nickel counterparts.

TG Metals (ASX: TG6) informed the market of an encounter with further lithium mineralisation whilst drilling at the Burmeister prospect within the company’s Lake Johnston lithium-nickel-gold project in Western Australia.

TG Metals reported assays from an ongoing diamond drilling campaign it said had confirmed continued intersections of spodumene bearing pegmatites exhibiting high lithium oxide (Li2O) grades.

Results included

TGRCD0043
23.5 metres at 1.52 per cent Li2O from 127.4m, including 6.6m at 1.55 per cent Li2O from 127.4m and 14m at 1.67 per cent Li2O from 136.5m;

TGRCD0032
10.5m at 1.6 per cent Li2O from 87.2m; and

TGRCD0037
7.6m at 1.37 per cent Li2O from 119.4m and 1.6m at 2.32 per cent Li2O from 97.7m.

“These initial results from the 2024 drilling confirm Burmeister as a significant high-grade spodumene lithium discovery with excellent potential as a near term major deposit,” TG Metals CEO David Selfe said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“This large mineralised system continues to show upside with thick pegmatite intervals intersected up dip from the original discovery holes.

“The drilling program has provided sufficient core sample for our first round of metallurgical testwork which will now begin in earnest.

“The results of this will add to the planning for resource drill out at Burmeister.

“Permitting on the promising Jaegermeister prospect is progressing well with field activities nearing completion.

“In addition, we will be testing wider expanses of the soil anomaly with seismic geophysics to further inform the lithium pegmatite geological model and our drill targeting.

“We look forward to the next round of drilling on Burmeister and the first drilling on our other highly prospective targets at Jaegermeister and Tay.”

TO READ THE FULL TG METALS ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

TG Metals CEO David Selfe and Wally Graham at the 2024 RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle

Widgie Nickel (ASX: WIN) may consider a change of shingle having carried out a targeted review of its entire tenement package for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites in 2023 following the company’s Faraday lithium discovery in October 2022.

The review identified prospects surrounding Faraday-Trainline, Voyager, Farson4 and other regional targets, which are now being systematically assessed via reconnaissance campaigns.

The latest of these is the Gemini prospect, located 600m north of Atomic 3 and extends the lithium trend to 1.2km from Voyager lithium prospect.

Visible spodumene has been identified in the field supported by high-grade rock chip assays.

“Widgie’s lithium exploration program is starting to paint a bigger picture of endowment,” Widgie Nickel managing director and CEO Steve Norregaard said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Hot on the heels of the Farson discovery we have identified another new high-grade lithium occurrence at a new prospect named Gemini with indications that there may be a substantial feeder system in close proximity.

“Boots on the ground geology is paying dividends with these additional results from our 2024 field program re-evaluating the whole of Widgie’s tenure for lithium.

“The systematic approach starting with grassroots mapping and sampling has been validated by these high-grade lithium results.

“This is only the beginning.

“Widgie is well positioned to make further discoveries in the highly prospective Lithium Corridor and is ideally set to build on an already established lithium resource base of 13,500 tonnes of contained Li2O and its substantial nickel endowment of 190,300 tonnes of contained nickel.”

TO READ THE FULL WIDGIE NICKEL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Asra Minerals (ASX: ASR) extended its lithium exploration tenure by entering an option agreement to add two new tenements to its Lake Johnston project portfolio.

Asra Minerals’ Southern Hub at the Lake Johnston project will expand to 550 square kilometres of land in the southern Yilgarn region of Western Australia some 150km south-west of Kalgoorlie.

The company described the ground as “fertile geological ground for LCT pegmatites”,noting it to be surrounded by several lithium projects.

“Recent lithium bearing pegmatite discoveries, and investment by Rio Tinto into the Lake Johnston area, validates the districts enormous critical mineral potential, and its vastly under-explored status,” Asra Minerals managing director Rob Longley said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The long term outlook for lithium is strong and new discoveries in Tier 1 jurisdictions like Western Australia are vital to support the growing demand for critical minerals and decarbonisation efforts, globally.

“Recent funding by the Government to assist early stage critical mineral exploration companies to grow end-to-end supply chains with Australia’s International partners is further evidence of the global efforts to encourage exploration and discoveries.

“Asra’s Southern Hub will be expanded as prospective ground becomes available to explore and improve our chances of discovery in the highly enriched and easily accessible southern Yilgarn area of WA.

“We are excited to partner up with the respected Geoscientists at Waree to explore two additional EL’s that adjoin our current holding at Lake Johnston.”

TO READ THE FULL ASRA MINERALS ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Green Technology Metals (ASX: GT1) announced infill lithium assay results returned from the North and South Aubry deposit located at the company’s Seymour lithium project in Canada.

Green Technology Metals reported an encounter with high-grade long intervals more than 20m thick and with grades up to 2.92 per cent Li20, which it claims to continue to confirm strong continuity of lithium mineralisation at the North Aubry deposit.

The infill results will assist a Mineral Resource Estimate upgrade for Seymour Green Technology Metals currently has underway, enabling improved Resource confidence category levels to feed more tonnes into an upcoming DFS.

The drilling achieved the best high-grade drilling intercept returned to date across the company’s portfolio of:

GTDD-23-0446
24.2m at 2.69 per cent Li20 from 235.8m, including 22.2m at 2.92 per cent Li20 from 235.8m.

Current North Aubry Mineral resources are 10.3 million tonnes at 1.03 per cent Li2O, representing part of a Global Resource of 24.9 million tonnes at 1.13 per cent Li2O.

“These recent results from infill drilling at Seymour are some of the highest grade and thickness ever defined, further proving the robust nature and quality of the North Aubry pegmatite which is amenable to both open pit mining and simple dense media separation,” Green Technology Metals CEO Luke Cox said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The team will now start modelling an updated MRE for Seymour increasing the resource confidence level, that will be used in the upcoming Feasibility study.

“Looking ahead to the second half of 2024, we have plans to expand our regional resource base and look forward to commencing our maiden exploration drilling campaign at the nearby highly prospective Junior lithium project, which sits in the same proven fertile greenstone belt as Seymour.”

TO READ THE FULL GREEN TECHNOLOGY METALS ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Green Technolgy Metals CEO Luke Cox and Wally Graham at the 2024 RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle

Aston Minerals Encounters Further Near Surface Nickel Sulphide Mineralisation

February 28, 2024/in Resources Roadhouse, The Drill Sergeant /by Wally Graham

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Aston Minerals (ASX: ASO) is keeping the nickel flag flying with the release of assays from a drilling program completed at the Bardwell prospect within the Boomerang nickel-cobalt target at the company’s Edleston project in Ontario, Canada.

Aston Minerals commenced a 10 hole short hole drilling program in September 2023, the results from which it claims continue to demonstrate extensive nickel sulphide mineralisation at the Bardwell prospect, confirming the continuity of mineralisation to surface.

intercepts include:

DDED23-138
173.6 metres at 0.3 per cent nickel, 0.011 per cent cobalt and 0.42 per cent sulphur from 28.9m, including 54.85m at 0.4 per cent nickel, 0.013 per cent cobalt and 0.6 per cent sulphur;

DDED23-140
91.88m at 0.29 per cent nickel, 0.011 per cent cobalt and 0.44 per cent sulphur from 24.54m, including 13.42m at 0.51 per cent nickel, 0.019 per cent cobalt and 1.84 per cent sulphur;

DDED23-136
63.6m at 0.32 per cent nickel, 0.012 per cent cobalt and 0.27 per cent sulphur from 184.5m, including 8m at 0.5 per cent nickel, 0.016 per cent cobalt and 0.45 per cent sulphur; and

DDED23-143
21.5m at 0.3 per cent nickel, 0.013 per cent cobalt and 0.3 per cent sulphur from 175.5m, including 3.5m at 0.62 per cent nickel, 0.016 per cent cobalt and 0.54 per cent sulphur.

“The results of the drilling program we commenced in Q3 2023 have shown that a continued trend of nickel sulphide exists within the Bardwell prospect and has been specifically targeted closer to the surface,” Aston Minerals managing director Russell Bradford said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The infill nature of the drilling has increased our geological confidence in the maiden mineral resource estimate and this data will now be used to update the mineral resource estimate.

“We will be utilising the updated mineral resource estimation and supporting metallurgical information to undertake further pit optimisation, scheduling and development assessments.

“The recent metallurgical flowsheet development work conducted at Corem shows a clear relationship between not only nickel grade, but sulphur as well.

“Its very pleasing to see this drilling will potentially not only continue to add nickel tonnes in a higher resource classification category but also the sulphur grades have come back to support strong metallurgical performance.

“The mineral resource estimate can now be updated with these latest drill results.”

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Astral Resources Drills More High-Grade Gold at Kamperman

February 28, 2024/in Resources Roadhouse, The Drill Sergeant /by Wally Graham

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Astral Resources (ASX: AAR) recently completed a three-hole reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Feysville gold project located between Kalgoorlie and Menzies in Western Australia.

Astral Resources drilled the three RC holes at the Kamperman discovery, achieving high-grade assay results, grading up to 12.6 grams per tonne gold, which the company declared to further confirm the high-grade potential of this new discovery.

Best results received from the RC drilling completed in the March Quarter included:

FRC263
7 metres at 5.81 grams per tonne gold from 19m, including 2m at 12.3g/t gold from 19m and 1m at 10.4g/t gold from 24m;

FRC264
8m at 2.04g/t gold from 32m, including 1m at 12.6g/t gold from 39m; and

FRC265
12m at 2.12g/t gold from 69m to end-of-hole (EOH).

Astral has drilled 16 holes drilled at Kamperman since January 2023, from ten of which high-grade results have been returned.

Five lines of air-core (AC) drilling were also completed across the western portion of the Feysville tenement package.

A follow-up 19-hole RC in-fill and extensional drill program has also recently been completed for which assays are pending.

“The recent Kamperman discovery within our Feysville project continues to deliver,” Astral Resources managing director Marc Ducler said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“On 15 January, we mobilised an air-core rig to site to complete a five-line regional air-core program targeting potential structures in the untested north-western portion of our tenement holding.

“Following completion of the program the same drill rig was converted to an RC configuration to complete 217 metres of drilling in three holes to assist with our interpretation and modelling of the recent high-grade Kamperman discovery.

“This three-hole program yielded high-grade assay results in every hole, further reinforcing the exceptional high-grade potential at Kamperman.

“A follow-up 2,459 metre RC program was immediately completed at Kamperman with assay results expected later this quarter as we continue to unlock the potential of this growing prospect which we have increasing confidence can contribute potential future high-grade satellite ore feed to our broader Mandilla gold project development.”

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Impact Minerals Makes HPA Metallurgy Breakthrough at Lake Hope

February 27, 2024/in Resources Roadhouse, The Drill Sergeant /by Wally Graham

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) reported making a breakthrough for producing High Purity Alumina (HPA) at the company’s Lake Hope project in Western Australia.

Impact Minerals announced the identification of a new proprietary metallurgical process for producing high-value HPA from the lake clays at the Lake Hope project.

The company explained the new process, called the LTL Process, has produced HPA at 99.99 per cent (4N) purity from the raw lake clay in only a few months of laboratory test work.

Impact claimed tis as one of the fastest times to produce HPA from raw materials reported by ASX-listed companies saying it attests to the relatively straightforward nature of the process.

The new process involves different reagents to those used in the Playa One Sulphate Process, which has also recently successfully produced 4N HPA, which Impact reported in February 2024.

Impact can earn an 80 per cent interest in Playa One Pty Limited, which owns the Lake Hope project, by completing a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on the project which is currently in progress.

“Today we reveal a further exciting breakthrough for producing HPA from the unique mix of minerals that are present at Lake Hope, minerals which have allowed our new LTL Process to produce the benchmark 99.99 per cent pure HPA very quickly after starting the test work,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The LTL Process is simpler than the Sulphate Process that underpinned our recent Scoping Study and showed that at less than US$4,000 per tonne, Lake Hope may produce HPA at up to 50 per cent cheaper than our peers.

“We think that further work on the LTL Process could result in even lower operating and capital costs, and this would only further enhance the already impressive economics of the project, which has an NPV8 of well over $1 billion.

“We have now started further optimization studies for the LTL Process and will push forward with our Pre-Feasibility Study using both process routes for the time being to determine the best strategic choice for processing at the project.

“Given we can run all these tests in parallel for little extra cost, we are still on course to finish the PFS later this year and continue to look forward towards producing HPA from Lake Hope”.

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

Iceni Gold Conducts 14 Mile Well Drilling

February 27, 2024/in Resources Roadhouse, The Drill Sergeant /by Wally Graham

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Iceni Gold (ASX: ICL) provided the market with an update on recent exploration activities undertaken on the company’s 14 Mile Well gold project in Western Australia.

Iceni Gold carried out Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling comprising 33 holes on several high priority gold and lithium targets including Claypan, Breakaway, Monument Area, and Guyer Well.

Results from the drilling included:

Guyer Northwest
FMRC0020
4 metres at 0.37 grams per tonne gold from 80m, including 2m at 0.62g/t gold from 80m;

FMRC0009
4m at 0.11g/t gold from 46m;

Monument North
FMRC0004
12m at 0.16g/t gold from 28m; and

Monument South
FMRC0015
2m at 0.38 g/t gold from 14m.

Iceni Gold indicated it was now looking at possible drilling to test beneath the RC intercepts to assess the potential for basement sulphide mineralisation.

Drillholes are currently being designed for other targets at Everleigh Well, Goose Well and Crossroads.

“Drilling was conducted on a number of targets within the 900 square kilometre tenement package in November and December 2023, with a specific focus at Guyer Well which had previously returned significant gold assay results,” Iceni Gold explained in its ASX announcement.

“The RC drilling intersected a number of low-grade (<1g/t) mineralised shears hosted in three adjacent holes confirming the continuity of the mineralised zone.

“Multiple narrow anomalous results were also returned from the drilling and a systematic study of the results will determine the next phase of exploration work.

“Drilling is currently being considered to test beneath the Guyer RC intercepts to assess the potential for basement mineralisation.

“Though the recent round of drilling results is less than desirable it does demonstrate that the 15km long Guyer Shear hosts low grade gold mineralisation and that the focus is now along strike and down dip to test for potential gold deposition trap sites.

“Whilst the Guyer area is being assessed for deeper RC drilling the company will prepare Everleigh Well and Crossroads for the first round of drilling on these targets.

“The company is currently well advanced in selling all surplus equipment, which primarily consists of a Mobile Trailer Camp facility and miscellaneous equipment.

“Sale of these assets are expected to realise significant proceeds by the end of the quarter.”