American West Metals Hits Copper Leading Into Summer Drilling Season

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: American West Metals (ASX: AW1) reported an encounter with a new zone of thick, near-surface high-grade copper at the company’s Storm copper project on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada.

American West Metals received assays from its spring drilling program undertaken in The Gap area of the project, which is located midway between the Cirrus deposit and the Thunder high-grade copper prospect.

The drilling at The Gap intersected a thick interval of high-grade copper sulphides associated with an EM anomaly of 20 metres at 2.3 per cent copper from 38m downhole containing copper grades up to 7.3 per cent copper (from 41m downhole), which the company declared to continue to confirm the association of EM anomalies with very high-grade, semi-massive copper sulphides.

“Results for the spring phase of the program have immediately built on last year’s great discovery record and confirmed a new zone of thick, near-surface copper mineralisation at the Gap prospect, with grades over seven per cent copper,” American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Drilling at The Gap clearly demonstrates that the southern graben area hosts multiple high-grade copper deposits along the largely untested fault network.

“Multiple high-priority EM targets are yet to be tested in this area, highlighting the exceptional exploration upside and potential for further discoveries.”

American West Metals has kicked off its summer drilling program testing a range of exploration and resource targets, including the Thunder, Cyclone and Chinook deposit areas.

The program will initially use two RC rigs and one diamond drilling rig with a total of over 20,000m of drilling planned for the 2024 program.

“The summer drilling will now aim to build on this with a significantly expanded work program that will initially see two Reverse Circulation (RC) rigs and one diamond drilling rig operating 24/7,” O’Neill said.

“The introduction of the track mounted RC drill rig this year has exceeded our expectations in terms of production capacity and operational flexibility, and this will help us achieve over 20,000 metres of planned drilling during the season.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Encounter Resources Hits High-grade Niobium Intercepts at Crean Carbonatite

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Encounter Resources (ASX: EN) is enjoying a good run with Aircore drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned owned Aileron project in the West Arunta region of Western Australia.

Ongoing drilling at the Aileron project has intersected continuous near-surface carbonatite across four initial aircore drill lines at the Crean target.

First assays received from the most western drill line have returned shallow, high-grade niobium-REE mineralisation in three adjacent drillholes, including:

EAL256
52m at 3 per cent niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) from 81m to EOH, including 16m at 6 per cent Nb2O5;

EAL155
32m at 2.5 per cent Nb2O5 from 67m to EOH, including 12m at 3.3 per cent Nb2O5; and

EAL257
15m at 1.5 per cent Nb2O5 from 120m to EOH, including 2m at 3.3 per cent Nb2O5.

Encounter has now taken the shallow mineralised trend identified at Crean to over 800m long, which appears to be strengthening to the west and remains open.

The company indicated the second batch of aircore samples, which includes further samples from Crean and priority samples from the Emily and Hurley prospects, are at the lab with assay results expected in July 2024.

“Aircore drilling is opening up new fronts of shallow niobium-REE carbonatite hosted mineralisation at Aileron,” Encounter Resources managing director Will Robinson said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The aircore rig completed over 10,000 metres of drilling in its first month on site.

“This drilling has expanded the near surface footprint of the Crean, Hurley and Emily carbonatites.

“The aircore rig has now moved to the untested Green and Joyce targets located east of WA1 Resources’ Luni carbonatite discovery.

“Drilling will start with broad spaced aircore traverses and then move to closer spaced drilling based on initial observations.

“Aircore drilling is proving to be a fast, low impact and cost-effective method to discover near surface niobium-REE mineralisation in this part of the West Arunta.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Venture Minerals Divests Tasmanian Riley Iron Ore Mine

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) announced the sale of the company’s Riley iron ore mine in Tasmania.

Venture Minerals has struck a share purchase and sale agreement with Goldvalley Brown Stone Pty Ltd for the sale of the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Venture Iron Pty Ltd, the holder of the Riley iron ore mine.

The company had Argonaut PCF undertake a strategic review of the project, which has been on care and maintenance since 2021.

This review considered all options, including a potential restart, joint venture or asset sale, with the focus on delivering near-term value for Venture and its shareholders.

After looking at all options presented the company determined the sale of the project was its best way forward.

On completion of the sale, Ventures coffers will receive a boost of $3 million, which it said will enable it to unlock the full economic potential of its recent Jupiter Rare earth discovery in Western Australia.

“The refreshed board is focussed on creating shareholder value,” Venture Minerals managing director Philippa Leggat said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The sale of Riley sees Venture receiving three million dollars and our environmental bond of over half-a-million dollars being returned to the company.

“This capital injection will be used to advance our high-grade, clay-hosted rare earth project, Jupiter.

“This also frees our team to focus their efforts on advancing Jupiter while eliminating the financial burden of maintaining the Riley project on care and maintenance.

“We thank the Tasmanian Authorities for working with Venture for all these years.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Mt Malcolm Mines Completes Grade Control Drilling at Golden Crown Gold Prospect

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mt Malcolm Mines (ASX: M2M) reported on recent activity at the company’s Golden Crown gold prospect in Western Australia.

Mt Malcolm Mines has just completed a program of grade control reverse circulation (RC) drilling and commenced bulk sampling as well as an ore processing study at the Golden Crown prospect.

The drilling entailed a 522 metre RC drilling campaign, including two holes testing northern extensions of the eastern lode.

A further 18 grade control drillholes were completed to support the bulk sampling program.

Samples have been submitted to SGS Kalgoorlie for analysis, with results expected within a fortnight.

A test study processing seven composite samples from the company’s February 2024 RC drilling program is being performed, using wet gravity separation at a nearby third-party plant.

A comprehensive bulk sampling program has commenced, targeting up to approx. 8,000 tonnes of high-grade ore.

“The company is excited with the progress at the Golden Crown prospect in 2024,” Mt Malcolm Mines managing director Trevor Dixon said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The current bulk sampling and test study on ore processing is poised to mark another significant milestone.

“These activities aim to establish the feasibility of wet gravity processing at the nearby third-party plant and assess the mineability of the shallow high-grade ore at the Golden Crown prospect.

“I would like to commend our team for their exceptional work in achieving these significant advancements.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Xanadu Mines Achieves Near Surface Copper Gold Results at Red Mountain

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Xanadu Mines (ASX: XAM) reported encounters with copper and gold at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Red Mountain copper and gold project, in the South Gobi region of Mongolia.

Xanadu Mines carried out approx. 4,880 metres of diamond drilling that was designed to test shallow high-grade gold and copper-gold targets across the Red Mountain Lease.

The drilling completed across four prospects hit shallow mineralisation the company considers warranting near term follow-up.

Best intersections include:

EPITHERMAL GOLD EXTENSIONS AT TARGET 33

OUDDH128
41 metres at 1.07 grams per tonne gold from 34m, Including 5m at 2.67g/t gold from 38m and 6m at 2.28g/t gold from 58m; and

OUDDH130
29m at 0.54g/t gold from 4m Including 4.1m at 1.39g/t gold from 18m.

MAIDEN DRILLING FOR HIGH GRADE COPPER SULPHIDE LODES AT NOWIE

OUDDH134
8m at 1 per cent copper and 0.12g/t gold from 267m; and

OUDDH136
14m at 0.75 per cent copper and 0.26g/t gold from 113m.

COPPER GOLD PORPHYRY EXTENSIONS AT TWO PROSPECTS

Target 10 copper sulphide lodes returned:

OUDDH132
4m at 0.85 per cent copper and 1.52g/t gold from 186m and 4m at 0.85 per cent copper and 1.52g/t gold from 186m.

Bavuu Copper-Gold Porphyry Prospect returned

OUDDH137
9.5m at 0.47 per cent copper and 0.21g/t gold from 110.3m.

“We are very pleased with the latest results from the Red Mountain diamond drilling program which tested several shallow gold and copper targets,” Xanadu Mines vice president exploration Dr Andrew Stewart said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“At Target 33 drilling continues to define multiple broad zones of near surface gold mineralisation that remain open a long strike.

“The first drilling at Nowie has been very encouraging returning broad intervals of copper and gold, including several narrower intervals of higher-grade copper demonstrating both scale and grade potential.

“These latest drilling results validate and refine our exploration models providing our exploration team with direction towards a significant discovery at Red Mountain.

“Follow up drilling is planned for the second half of 2024.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Dreadnought Resources Extends Mangaroon Drilling Targets

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Dreadnought Resources (ASX: DRE) informed the market it has extended the current drilling arrangements at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Mangaroon project in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia.

Dreadnought Resources has engaged a RC drill rig to commence drilling the Gifford Creek niobium-rare earth elemets (REE) carbonatite targets in July, immediately following drilling of the Tarraji-Yampi targets.

“We are pleased to…secured a RC rig for programs at Mangaroon,” Dreadnought Resources managing director Dean Tuck said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The programs at Mangaroon will include extensions to thick, high-grade niobium, testing areas of deeper weathering for niobium accumulations as well as our first test of the exciting copper-gold, zinc-silver VMS target at Tiger.”

The company has picked a Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) grant to co-fund the Gifford Creek and Tiger programs.

In addition, a moving loop electromagnetic survey (MLEM) will be completed ahead of the Tiger program to assist with target definition.

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

 

FireFly Metals Encounters Continuous High-Grade Green Bay Mineralisation Outside Resource

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: FireFly Metals (ASX: FFM) reported further wide high-grade copper-gold intersections from drilling underway at the company’s Green Bay copper-gold project in Canada.

FireFly Metals said the latest results have demonstrated consistently high-grade mineralisation extends continuously for 460 metres outside the current Resource boundary.

The company will use these results to form part of the next upgrade in the Resource, which currently stands at 39.2 million tonnes at 2.1 per cent copper for 811,000 tonnes copper equivalent (CuEq).

Two more rigs are on the way to site, taking the total to four meeting FireFly’s goal of accelerating resource growth in parallel with in-mine discovery exploration.

“We continue to generate exceptional step out drilling results which point to substantial growth in the high-grade copper and gold resource at Green Bay,” FireFly Metals managing director Steve Parsons said in the compnay’s ASX announcement.

“Given the consistently strong drilling results we are achieving, we are doubling the number of rigs to four.

“This is aimed at accelerating our resource growth while also seeking to make new discoveries.

“Green Bay is a large district scale copper-gold mineralised system with huge potential outside the current resource and known mineralisation.

“We are aiming to unlock the value of this wider project area and therefore we are about to start regional geophysical surveys to define lookalike copper-gold targets for drill testing.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Coda Minerals Flotation Testing Delivers Pathway to Improved Recoveries

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Coda Minerals (ASX: COD) reported encouraging initial results from ongoing metallurgical test work it is conducting on material sourced from the company’s 100 per cent-owned Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt project in South Australia.

Coda Minerals is conducting the test work on the back of a positive Scoping Study, delivered in March 2024.

The latest results relate to recently completed metallurgical test work on material from Windabout, one of the open pit deposits at Elizabeth Creek where a series of flotation tests assessed the impact of novel oxide collectors (Syensquo Aero® Ox 100 series and 3418A) on copper recovery.

Both sets of tests improved recoveries of both copper and cobalt.

“To deliver a transformational uplift at Elizabeth Creek we have two major levers to pull: the first is in exploring for additional Resources and the second is in seeking to increase copper recoveries,” Coda Minerals CEO Chris Stevens said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“This work is the first step in achieving improvements to recoveries by delivering a major uplift during the rougher float stages without incurring any significant additional costs.

“Pursuing an Increase in recovery numbers is extremely important as it essentially delivers more payable metal from the same number of mined tonnes without a material increase in costs.

“We have commenced test work with Windabout, which has the lowest overall recoveries across the project, but we anticipate that this change in flotation collectors will also deliver major improvements for the MG14 and Emmie Bluff deposits.

“These tests show that this work has been extremely worthwhile, demonstrating unequivocally that the right combination of reagents can concentrate the oxides within these deposits.

“With this successful application during the rougher stage, we will now progress to test work across the whole flotation process through to cleaner concentrate.

“Following that we will then undertake test work on MG14 and Emmie Bluff as well.

“Once complete, we anticipate that this work will give us updated recovery numbers for each deposit, flowing through ultimately to a potentially significant boost to overall project economics.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

 

Recharge Metals Commences Exploration at Wapistan Lithium Project James Bay

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Recharge Metals (ASX: REC) has commenced its 2024 exploration season at the company’s is 100 per cent-owned Wapistan lithium project in the James Bay Region of Québec, Canada.

Recharge Metals has kicked off fieldwork across eight kilometres of previously untested prospective greenstones at Wapistan West.

This ground will be systematically sampled following up on limited sampling undertaken by the company in 2023 that confirmed Wapistan West contains highly fractionated LCT-pegmatites and interpreted by the company to therefore hold potential to host lithium mineralisation.

Targets to be explored include new areas of interest identified via recent analysis of LiDAR survey results.

“We are excited to get back on the ground at Wapistan, following the melt of the snow and ice, and to resume our groundwork at what we believe to be the most prospective ground within the project,” Recharge Metals managing director Felicity Repacholi said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, within which Wapistan in located, remains a hotspot for exploration and development stage lithium projects. Results from the previous season at Wapistan were encouraging, and we look forward to updating investors on the results of this work program.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

 

Venture Minerals Hits Best Jupiter Drill Intersection to Date

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) reported further aircore drilling success from the company’s Jupiter rare earth discovery in Western Australia.

Venture Minerals declared the latest results from the large-scale, high-grade, Jupiter rare earth discovery to have eclipsed all expectations, with the whole southern zone of the 40 km2 target delivering consistent broad and high-grade REE mineralisation.

The drilling included the company’s best intersection to date of:

BRAC234
58 metres at 2,723ppm total rare earth oxide (TREO).

“The most telling way to assess exploration success is to compare the before and after results,” Venture Minerals managing director Philippa Leggat said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“When you see infill drilling delivering a sea of magenta that represents the highest grade, like we see in the southern area of Jupiter, you know you’re onto a very, robustly mineralised system.

“And, after over 200 drill holes we are still breaking records, with amazing intersections of up to 58 metres at 2,723ppm TREO in this latest batch of assays.

“We are excited to receive the final assay results and move forward with our metallurgy and then maiden resource estimate.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE