Encounter Resources Raises $10M to Accelerate West Arunta Exploration

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Encounter Resources (ASX: ENR) has bolstered its coffers after receiving firm commitments for a placement to raise $10 million at 25 cents per share.

Encounter Resources said the raising demonstrated a strong endorsement of the current exploration programs underway at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Aileron IOCG and Critical Minerals project in the West Arunta region of Western Australia.

The company indicated the funds will primarily be put towards an accelerated exploration program at the Aileron that will entail geochemistry covering new gravity targets, geophysics as well as RC and diamond drilling.

Elsewhere copper, REE and lithium exploration will be undertaken at Encounter’s projects in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

“The limited exploration to date in the West Arunta has shown that the region is highly prospective for the formation of IOCG and carbonatite-hosted critical mineral deposits under shallow cover,” Encounter Resources managing director Will Robinson said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“This funding will allow us to accelerate activities across the West Arunta which has the hallmarks of a new copper and critical minerals province in Australia.”

 

 

MTM Critical Metals Claims Laterite Nickel Discovery

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: MTM Critical Metals (ASX: MTM) has claimed a new laterite nickel mineralisation discovery at the Seahorse prospect within the company’s East Laverton project in the north Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

MTM Critical Metals declared the discovery on the back of assay results from a recently completed program of aircore drilling that confirm nickel laterite mineralisation at the Seahorse prospect.

The Seahorse area is located approximately 50km southeast of Laverton and is considered by MTM Critical Metals as being prospective for a range of commodities, including nickel, cobalt, rare earth elements (REE), gold and base metals based on limited historical exploration results.

The results retuned nickel mineralisation grades in a lateritic weathering zone over an ultramafic host rock, up to 2.2 per cent nickel.

The nickel zones are locally coincident with elevated cobalt, chrome, and rare earth element (REE) mineralisation.

Higher grade drilling intersections include:

23ELAC175
17 metres at 0.92 per cent nickel;

23ELAC176
28m at 0.95 per cent nickel, 10m at 0.1 per cent cobalt and 21m at 0.97 per cent chrome; and

23ELAC185
28m at 0.97 per cent nickel and 32m at 1.08 per cent chrome.

“This discovery of lateritic nickel mineralisation is the successful result of MTM’s systematic exploration campaign at the Seahorse prospect over the past two years,” MTM Critical Metals managing director Lachlan Reynolds said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Prior to our work, there has been limited historical exploration in this area, which is mostly covered by transported sediments and marginal to the greenstone belts that are traditionally considered to be most prospective.

“However, our combined soil sampling program and interpretation of the regional geophysical surveys has identified numerous anomalies, which this drilling confirms can be associated with mineralisation developed in the laterite profile developed over prospective rocks.

“The significant nickel grades and widths intersected at this stage are very encouraging.

“Furthermore, as only part of the interpreted strike length of the interpreted ultramafic unit have been tested with the drilling, there is considerable potential for a large resource to be delineated.

“We are also keen to evaluate the potential for sulphide-hosted nickel mineralisation associated with the ultramafic units and are considering what ground geophysical survey types may be appropriate to undertake to define new drilling targets.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Alto Metals Continues Indomitable Gold Hits

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Alto Metals (ASX: AME) had plenty to tell punters at the RIU Sydney Resources Round-up about the Indomitable Camp, within the company’s 100 per cent-owned, Sandstone gold project in Western Australia, but had more in store when it returned home.

Alto Metals reported further gold results from first pass RC drilling carried out on the Cessna prospect, located at the southern extent of the Indomitable Camp.

Previous owners had conducted preliminary drilling campaigns at Cessna however, the prospect has never been subjected to further scrutiny with no RC drilling previously undertaken.

This has proven to be good for Alto with its first pass RC drilling at Cessna has confirmed high-grade gold mineralisation, including:

SRC928
6 metres at 1.6 grams per tonne gold from 56m, including 4m at 2g/t gold from 58m; and

16m at 7.2g/t gold from 65m, including 4m at 24.2g/t gold from 74m comprising 1m at 28.8g/t gold from 74m, 1m at 21.7g/t gold from 75m, 1m at 23.1g/t gold from 76m, and 1m at 23.4g/t gold from 77m; and

SRC929
8m at 2g/t gold from 70m, including 1m at 11.8g/t gold from 71m.

Alto said the assays from Cessna have confirmed mineralisation extends over 3.5kms of strike and remains open in all directions.

The company believes the extent of shallow oxide mineralisation at Indomitable Camp, is an indication of a potentially much larger gold system at depth.

“Our planned and systematic approach to exploration at Indomitable continues to deliver and further supports our view of Indomitable being part of a much larger system,” Alto Metals managing director Matthew Bowles said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“These latest results from our first pass drilling at Cessna, have confirmed the high-grade mineralisation, including 16m at 7.2g/t gold within the BIF and extended the overall mineralised footprint to over three kilometres.

“Planning for the next phase of drilling at Indomitable is well underway and intends to target the orientation of these interpreted high-grade structures within the fresh rock, including the recently announced 16m at 13.1g/t gold from 19m intersected in SRC918.

“The final assays from this first phase of drilling are pending and we look forward to updating shareholders with our ongoing exploration activities in the coming weeks.”

 

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Latin Resources Extends Colina Lithium Pegmatites

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Latin Resources (ASX: LRS) backed up its attendance at the RIU Sydney Resources Round-up by updating the market on the latest assay results from resource definition drilling currently underway at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Salinas lithium project in Brazil.

Latin Resources has completed 133 drill holes, which represents a substantial increase from the 47 holes it used for the project’s maiden MRE completed in December 2022.

The latest extension drilling to the west of the existing Colina MRE has encountered, what the company described as, “a significant lithium swarm” that has extended the footprint of the Colina deposit to over 2 kilometres long by one kilometre wide.

Latin Resources declared it is very confident these lithium swarms could continue along strike to the southwest, providing the potential to further extend the Colina deposit mineral resource.

The company signalled a new program of step-out drilling will now be designed to test the extension of the pegmatite structure.

“The continued expansion of this lithium pegmatite deposit is phenomenal and has the whole team very excited to potentially see this develop into a tier one lithium deposit in the Minas Gerais Lithium Valley,” Latin Resources VP of Operations – Americas Tony Greenaway said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“We will now move some rigs to start testing to expand the deposit through systematic step-out to the southwest from the known Colina mineralisation or what our team call the Colina Corridor, where our deposit remains open.

“Our team on the ground at Colina has done an outstanding job to get through the full drilling program that we had planned for the upcoming June resource update.

“All holes are now complete, samples collected and are with the laboratory in Belo.

“We have been seeing fast turnaround from the lab, so we expect to have all results back for the beginning of June, when SGS in Canada will commence the estimation process.

“Now that this drilling milestone has been achieved, we will switch our focus on site, moving some of our drilling fleet to start drilling some large diameter drill core to collect the necessary metallurgical samples for our DFS studies.

“This will include running the samples through the SGS DMS pilot plant in Lakefield, Toronto.

“While we are all eagerly anticipating the outcome of the MRE update, our focus is very much to continue to advance this exceptional project on all fronts.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Los Cerros Encounters Encouraging Kusi Gold Hits

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Los Cerros (ASX: LCL) released the latest drill results from the first drilling program at the Kusi prospect, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Ono project in Papua New Guinea.

Los Cerros declared results from hole KS23DD004 to be “spectacular”, which it said had combined with visual results from KS23DD005 to motivate a re-assessment of the potential of the Kusi Upper Limestone skarn mineralisation.

Results include:

KU23DD002
39.8 metres at 1.85 grams per tonne gold from 143.2m, including 13.6m at 3.14g/t gold from 169.4m;

KU23DD003
7.3m at 2.25g/t gold from 160.7m and 11m at 4.36g/t gold from 182m; and

KU23DD004
52m at 3.65g/t gold from 164m including 6.68m at 10.91g/t gold from 171.75m and 7.5m at 14.87g/t gold from 191.7m.

Los Cerros said its drilling to date had exceeded its grade expectations while providing information about gold distribution and continuity and confirming the company’s evolving geological model.

The company has interpreted its observations to suggest a higher-grade gold zone emerging to the north of the common drill pad, generally associated with garnet (green and brown) skarn alteration with weak copper mineralisation.

“We are very pleased with the results,” Los Cerros managing director Jason Stirbinskis said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“We are only 5 holes into a roughly 18-hole program, so we have much more to learn and discover, but this has been a great start.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

E79 Gold Mines Identifies Jungar Flats Gold, Lithium and Base Metal Targets

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: E79 Gold Mines (ASX: E79) didn’t let the dust settle after returning home from the RIU Sydney Resources Round-up by reporting the identification of numerous anomalies prospective for gold, lithium and base metal mineralisation at the company’s Jungar Flats gold project in the Murchison Region of Western Australia.

E79 Gold Mines explained the targets had been outlined by a recent shallow auger drilling program the company had carried out to test a 35 kilometres strike of greenstone using the CSIRO-developed UltraFine+ analytical technique.

The company reported the results demonstrate a range of anomalies for gold, base metals and lithium.

The highest priority gold target identified is an 800 metres-long coherent gold anomaly within the greenstone sequence that is also a coincident lithium anomaly.

“The UltraFine+ soil auger results demonstrate the enormous potential of the Jungar Flats project, with anomalies defined for a range of commodities including gold, base metals and lithium,” E79 Gold Mines CEO Ned Summerhayes said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The gold and base metal anomalies sit along a greenstone unit where historic drilling had demonstrated gold mineralisation at depth, while the lithium anomaly sits in an area of interpreted granite.

“The high-priority gold anomaly reflects a coherent anomaly within greenstones extending for over 800 metres, and, importantly, within a magnetic low, indicating possible magnetite destruction.

“Magnetite destruction can indicate the flow of hydrothermal, metal-bearing fluids interacting with previously magnetic country rock.

“The next stage of exploration will be to ground-truth the anomalies ahead of aircore drill testing, after appropriate heritage surveys have taken place.”

 

 

 

Future Battery Minerals Encounters Thick Kangaroo Hills Spodumene Intersections

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Future Battery Minerals (ASX: FBM) released diamond drilling (DD) results from the Kangaroo Hills lithium project (KHLP) in Western Australia (FBM 80%, Lodestar Minerals Ltd 20%).

Future Battery Minerals reported the drilling of five near-vertical shallow holes, which was undertaken to infill previous RC drilling and provide core sample of lithium pegmatite, intersected further near surface, multiple thick spodumene bearing pegmatite intersections in widths of up to 23.8 metres.

At time of announcement DD program assays were still pending.

The company said the diamond core samples will be used in early stage metallurgical and mineralogical test work and to provide structural information while noting the five drill holes all intercepted the target pegmatite.

“Given the early exploration success at Kangaroo Hills, FBM moved quickly to diamond drilling in order to understand the potential of this significant discovery,” Future Battery Minerals technical director Robin Cox said in the company’ ASX announcement.

“The DD core samples give our geological team the ability to observe the pegmatite mineralisation with a level of detail not possible in RC drill chips and allows for the accurate logging of the lithium mineral spodumene, which has been identified as the dominant lithium mineral in fresh rock.

“Ultimately, the core will be utilised in early-stage metallurgical test work along with ongoing detailed mineralogical assessments.

“This significant phase of work is being conducted while the company awaits the return of assays from the remaining 23 drill holes from the Phase 2 RC program and finalises the new Phase 3 RC drilling program along with regional target generative geophysics.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

 

Southern Cross Gold Scores Big Sunday Creek Gold Hit in Deepest Hole

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Southern Cross Gold (ASX: SXG) returned home from the RIU Sydney Resources Round-up and quickly announced new drilling results from the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sunday Creek project in Victoria.

Southern Cross Gold reported results from drillhole SDDSC064 that returned:

1.2 metres at 121.8 grams per tonne gold from 889.6 m.

The company explained this to be from the deepest mineralisation at 830m vertically below surface, scoring a 115m down-dip extension and one of the two highest grade intersections to date, behind the previous intersection from drillhole SDDSC061 of 12m at 7.4g/t gold equivalent (AuEq), including 0.3m at 249.5g/t AuEq.

Southern Cross also highlighted the importance it is placing on the increasing abundance of visible gold at depth at Sunday Creek that is typical for epizonal deposits.

“SDDSC064 intersected five high-grade veins with visible gold, including 1.2 metres at 121.8 grams per tonne gold,” Southern Cross Gold managing director Michael Hudson said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“This is the deepest mineralisation and one of the two highest grade results drilled to date at Sunday Creek.

“The scale of the mineralised system continues to grow and deliver significant results at a globally leading hit-rate.

“At Sunday Creek, and as is typical for epizonal deposits (for example Fosterville and Costerfield, Reefton (NZ)), visible gold becomes increasingly significant at depth.

“The hole importantly extended mineralisation to depth, being a 115 m down-dip extension from SDDSC061.

“It demonstrated increased frequency of high-grade mineralised vein sets.

“Further, it has defined continuity and increased strike length (up to 60 m) of individual veins and defined a broad mineralised halo intersecting 212.8 metres at one gram per tonne gold around high-grade mineralisation.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Gold Tailwinds: Noah’s Rule’s Sean Russo at RIU Sydney

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Noah’s Rule principal and managing director Sean Russo painted a positive picture for gold in the final presentation to the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up on Thursday.

“We’ve got a great background,” he told delegates.

“[Gold’s] not got its dual headwinds it often has … of underperforming equities and the US dollar being stronger, so things are good.

“And the world it seems, to some extent, is coming our way.”

His charted research indicated Australia was in a similar situation to the 1970s when gold was “strongly outperforming general equities”.

“And when that happens, general equity investors get really freaked out and they rush in and buy gold,” he said.

“I think this looks incredibly similar,” he continued, referring to the current point in time on the chart and citing factors including interest rate woes and financial repression.

“The gloss has come off central bankers, which is why the gloss has come on gold,” he said.

Russo noted gold had achieved a new all-time high in many currencies, including the Australian dollar and the yen, but he didn’t agree with those who thought the precious metal looked pricey.

“Gold is not expensive relative to lots of other things that most other people invest in,” he said.

“And a lot of those other things they invest in are probably challenged – and if they start to run out of that and come running to where we already are, that’s pretty exciting.”

He did suggest not going “all in” on gold, saying other commodities were even cheaper and potentially poised for a lift.

One of his charts indicated strong similarities with the lead-up to the previous commodities bull market.

“As I said last year, Goldman Sachs has talked about … the electrification of the world will require the equivalent of three times the impact of China being allowed into the WTO [World Trade Organization],” he said.

As for gold equities, Russo said the sector needed to see new buyers entering.
“We all believe … but we need to get a new group of people to come in and buy the stocks that we believe in,” he said.

“They’ve got to get the stacks on the mill, right, you’ve got to get the other people here.”

Fortitude North Assays “Dramatically” Add Potential at Matsa’s Lake Carey

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Matsa Resources (ASX: MAT) executive chairman Paul Poli had a spring in his step at the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up today, with fresh assay results he believes help demonstrate the multimillion-ounce potential at Fortitude North.

The latest results included 6m at 5.1 grams per tonne gold, within 14m at 3.4g/t from 113m.

“We think these are absolutely massive results for a [potential] open pit mine,” Poli, who is the company’s second-largest shareholder, told the conference.

The “gold company with a twist of lithium” believes Fortitude North could dramatically build the resource at its 886,000 ounce Lake Carey gold project in Western Australia’s Goldfields.

Poli told Resources Roadhouse on the sidelines it was early days at Fortitude North, where drilling has only gone to 200m deep, but they were seeing “quite substantial” similarities to AngloGold Ashanti’s nearby Sunrise Dam open pit and underground operation.

A 2021 feasibility study on Fortitude, not including Fortitude North, indicated positive cash flow of about $95 million using a $2,400/oz gold price.

Poli told delegates this would increase to $200 million using the current $3,000/oz price.

“It just needs a home for its ore and that’s what we’re addressing,” he said.

Lithium is Matsa’s second focus, added about 18 months ago, and Poli said testing had shown the company’s lepidolite and polylithionite samples were “easily processable” by Yongxing Special Materials Technology, one of China’s largest lepidolite miners and processors.

Matsa arguably holds the largest tenement applications for lithium exploration in south-east Asia of circa 2,000 square kilometres and Poli expected the granting process to begin “soon”.