Impact likes jam in the doughnut

Several exciting targets have been generated at depth and around the known deposit at Commonwealth, where Impact has defined an initial inferred resource of about 100,000 gold equivalent ounces at a grade of 4.5 grams per tonne from surface.

This is an encouraging start to the project, as a potential starter pit with early payback may already have been found.

On April 18, Impact said that a re-interpretation of Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical data at Commonwealth identified three new targets at the Silica Hill prospect and two new targets close to the Commonwealth deposit.

At Silica Hill, the company refined the position of three very strong chargeability anomalies.

These are, in part, coincident with a strong gold-silver-lead-in-soil anomaly with associated molybdenum, arsenic, thallium, mercury and selenium that covers many hundreds of square metres and is open to the northwest and northeast.

Meanwhile, at the southern end of the identified deposit, at Commonwealth South, mineralisation dominated by disseminated iron, zinc and lead sulphides was identified in the IP data.

A strong IP anomaly extends below the drilled boundary of the resource and is in part coincident with an interpreted down plunge extension of the deposit.

In addition a strong IP anomaly occurs about 200m west of the deposit in an area that has not been previously drilled.

“These two targets, which are in addition to other new targets recently identified in drill assay data and ground gravity data, will also be tested in the drill program,” Jones said.

Impact is continuing to generate more targets at the two other prospects, which are likely to be revealed leading up to the May drill program.

If the Commonwealth program turns up encouraging drill results, Impact is likely to be in the enviable position of being well-funded for follow-up drilling later in the year at both its NSW projects.

That’s courtesy of last year’s investment by Minderoo, the private company owned by Andrew Forrest.

“It gives Minderoo the right to farm into either or both of the Commonwealth and Broken Hill projects once we’ve spent $2.5 million on them, and we’ll reach that expenditure threshold at the end of the Commonwealth drill program,” Jones said.
“If they elect to proceed, they will spend another one million on each of the projects to earn a 19.9 per cent interest in both of them.

“So it is potentially two million in further funding.”

Although Commonwealth will be the priority in the near-term, Impact is still keen to commence follow-up work on the highly-promising drill hits from last year at Broken Hill.

Impact reported Drill Hole RHD012 at the Red Hill prospect intersected high grades of the rare platinum group metals rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium over a 1.2m-side interval within an extremely high grade 3.5m wide intercept of palladium, platinum, gold, copper, nickel and silver.

The 3.5m interval, starting 50m below the surface, encountered 3.5m at 159g/t (5.3 ounces) of 6PGE+gold, 2.9 per cent nickel, 2.3 per cent copper and 14.5g/t silver.

“Impact hopes to return to its Broken Hill project later in the year to follow up these spectacular hits,” Jones said.

“We actually got the highest reported grades ever in Australia for a drill hole for platinum group metals.

“We’ve found the grades so it’s a matter of what tonnage we can find around it now.

“But if we could find more of that high-grade material, it wouldn’t take many tonnes to provide us with a mining operation.”

The exploration activities planned by Impact for the remainder of the year come amid a turnaround in market sentiment towards exploration companies, according to Jones.

“Things have picked up recently, people are raising money, especially with gold doing its thing,” he said.

“The last two months have seen a significant turnaround in the whole industry.

“There is a bit more confidence around that we’ve seen the worst.