Metallica Minerals claims new minerals sand discovery

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Metallica Minerals (ASX: MLM) has claimed the discovery, of what the company describes to be, “potentially substantial zircon-rich heavy mineral sand (HMS) mineralisation”, located on the western side of the far north area of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula.

Metallica made the discovery while conducting a maiden regional reconnaissance drilling program on EPM 15371, a tenement the company holds 100 per cent through its wholly-owned subsidiary company, Oresome Australia Pty Ltd.

Metallica explained the drilling was aimed at further defining the mineralisation it had previously identified via a recent helicopter reconnaissance surface sample, which recorded from laboratory analysis 2.9 per cent heavy mineral (HM), comprising 54 per cent zircon and 35 per cent titanium minerals.

This initial drill program consisted of 36 shallow auger holes covering an approximate 1.8 kilometres long by 0.8km wide area along the south-eastern edge of a regional Exploration Target called T16.

According to Metallica, T16 is a low-lying vegetated sand dune with a length of approximately 14km in a north-south orientation and over 200-300m wide, situated 3km inland from the shoreline.

 

Aerial view over the middle of the T16 target area looking south
toward the 1.8km by 0.8km area drilled along the southeast edge of the
T16 target. Source: Company announcement

 

The company has submitted a total of 152 samples to a laboratory in Brisbane for HM grade analysis and a breakdown of zircon, titanium, iron oxide and other minerals, the results from which it anticipates to receive in the next few weeks.

Samples from this drilling program will also be set aside for preliminary metallurgical testwork and zircon, titanium minerals (i.e. rutile, ilmenite) quality analysis.

“This is a positive outcome on new work in this new large target area and gives confidence about potential further discoveries across Metallica‟s nearly 300 kilometre length of mostly sandy, near coastal tenements on Cape York, particularly given the lack generally of systematic heavy mineral sands exploration to date in the region,” Metallica Minerals managing director Andrew Gilles said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“T16 is our first target to be drill tested on our regional tenement portfolio and we have at least 10 other priority regional targets in our Cape York holdings.

“Given our Urquhart Point zircon-rutile deposit and now T16 results to date, it is fair to say the region is highly prospective for mineral sands, particularly zircon and rutile.”

 
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