Ram Resources increases Fraser Range footprint

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ram Resources (ASX: RMR) has expanded its ground holding in the Fraser Range nickel-copper belt of Western Australia with the acquisition of an option over five new tenements.
 
Ram has acquired a two-year option over the tenements from a private prospector.

Under the terms of the option, Ram will pay $40,000 immediately and a further $40,000 within six months.

A final payment of $50,000 per tenement must be paid by Ram should it elect to exercise its option to acquire 100 per cent of any of the exploration licences. The vendor retains a 1.5 per cent net smelter royalty.
 
During the term of the two-year option, Ram will be required to undertake exploration to assess the potential of the Fraser Range North project.

Ram indicated this would be carried out in parallel with the company’s existing exploration activities at its Fraser Range project.

“This belt is arguably the hottest exploration ground in Australia at the moment and we have a significant land holding on both sides,” Ram Resources managing director Bill Guy said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
 

The tenements, covering 163 square kilometres and collectively known as Fraser Range North, are located 150 kilometres north of both Ram’s existing Fraser Range project and Sirius Resources’ (ASX: SIR) Nova nickel-copper deposit.

 

 Fraser North project location map. Source: Company announcement

 

An auger drilling program completed by Ponton Minerals between 2005 and April 2012 identified three coincident soil anomalies containing nickel, copper, and palladium with results from this program including: 282ppm nickel, 928ppm arsenic, 87ppm cobalt, 75ppm copper, 238ppb lead and 53ppb platinum over the project area.
 
Other work by previous tenement holders included a shallow aircore drilling program targeting mineral sands. The drilling was generally between 16m and 134 m deep and in many cases only a single bottom-of-hole composite sample was taken for assay.
 
This program was conducted without the benefit of ground geophysics to target nickel-copper sulphides with no anomalous intersections detected. All work was completed before Sirius’ Nova nickel sulphide discovery was announced in July, 2012 (see Figure 5).

“We are extremely encouraged by the strong results generated in early-stage work on both ground positions,” Guy said.

“The exploration programs we are implementing will build on this work, providing investors with exposure to substantial activity in this hot region.”

Email:  info@ramresources.com.au

Website: www.ramresources.com.au