Metallica Minerals completes second graphite hole at Esmeralda
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Metallica Minerals (ASX: MLM) has completed a second graphite-focused core drill hole on the company’s Esmeralda graphite project, located south of Croydon in north Queensland.
This second drill hole, WD002, is located 1.2 kilometres to the west of the first, WD001, and was designed to test the western edge of a coincident large electromagnetic (EM) and magnetic anomaly the company had identified way back in 2005.
From visual observations of the core, Metallica has determined WD002 intersected 49 metres of graphite mineralisation from a downhole depth of 72 metres.
The company said the mineralisation intersected by WD002 is visually consistent with and believed to be the same graphitic granite breccia unit intersected by WD001, which yielded a 120 metre intersection at a depth of 68 metres.
Historical drilling, located up to 6.2 kilometres west of WD001, also intersected graphitic granite at depths of less than 100m.
Metallica considers the recent drilling results, combined with the historical data, suggest the targeted graphitic granite breccia might extend much further to the west and is open to the east.
Metallica expects to receive the preliminary assay results for the two holes by the end of November.
“We are extremely encouraged by these early results from Esmeralda,” Metallica Minerals CEO Simon Slesarewich said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“They clearly point to the project hosting a potentially large-scale and unique high-grade graphite deposit.
“The potential for a large-scale deposit is supported by both recent work by Metallica and historical data.
“When you combine the results of this core drilling program with our geological and EM modelling and the historical drilling records, it is difficult not to conclude that the potential extents of the Esmeralda deposit are very large.
“It certainly compares favourably with the world-class graphite discoveries in east Africa and Canada.
“We are also cautiously optimistic about the grade.
“We know that the visual graphite intersections in WD001 and WD002 are uniform and indicative of a good graphite grade.
“We also know that graphite deposits of similar hydrothermal origin typically contain high-purity graphite.
“But we’ll have to wait for the assay results to come back later this month followed by preliminary metallurgical test work before we can issue a more definitive statement.”
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