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Ardea Resources Provides Nickel Sector Lifeline

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) is keeping the Australian nickel sector alive with the announcement of a Joint Venture to develop the Goongarrie Hub within the company’s Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) in Western Australia.

The Kalgoorlie Nickel Project hosts one of the largest nickel-cobalt resources in the developed world hosting 854 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.045 per cent cobalt for 6.1 million tonnes of contained nickel and 386,000 tonnes of contained cobalt.

Ardea claims this places the company in prime position to provide essential supplies of ESG-compliant nickel and cobalt, along with other critical minerals such as scandium.

The Goongarrie Hub is located just outside the Western Australian mining heart of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and is armed with resources of 584 million tonnes at 0.69 per cent nickel and 0.043 per cent cobalt for 4 million tonnes of contained nickel and 250,000 tonnes of contained cobalt.

Ardea Resources has entered into a binding Cooperation Agreement with a consortium of Japanese companies: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd (SMM) and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC).

SMM is a pre-eminent Japanese nickel-cobalt laterite development and production company, operating the Coral Bay and Taganito HPAL nickel operations in the Philippines and the Niihama Nickel Refinery and Harima Refinery in Japan.

MC is one of Japan’s largest and premier general trading and investment companies with decades of experience in investing in the Australian resources sector.

Together with the consortium, Ardea will form a 50:50 incorporated JV to develop the KNP – Goongarrie Hub under the moniker of Kalgoorlie Nickel Pty Ltd (KNPL), which is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Ardea.

Ardea views the transaction as a successful conclusion of the company’s Strategic Partner process labelling it a major milestone for the development of the KNP – Goongarrie Hub into a globally important nickel-cobalt operation.

“The Ardea team have been focused on aligning the company with the best possible strategic partners to assist in realising the full potential of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project – Goongarrie Hub,” Ardea Resources managing director and CEO Andrew Penkethman said when announcing the deal.

“Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Corporation are high quality partners that can bring leading expertise to continue to drive the project forward.

“Sumitomo Metal Mining is a leader in developing and operating nickel laterite projects and is fully integrated within both the stainless steel and lithium-ion battery sectors.

“Mitsubishi Corporation has decades of resources sector experience within Australia and has been a significant investor and contributor to the Australian economy.

 

“Ardea acknowledges Japan as a well-respected partner of Australia and looks forward to being part of the growing relationship between the two nations, as they progress their commitment to the global energy transition.

“This is especially relevant with nickel and cobalt classified as Critical Minerals by both nations.”

Under the terms of the transaction, KNPL will manage the DFS process, for which the consortium will stump up 100 per cent of the funding up to a budget of approximately $98.5 million via staged equity contributions over approximately 18 months.

Ardea and the consortium will provide technical and commercial input into the DFS.

At the conclusion of the DFS spend, the consortium will have subscribed to a 35 per cent ownership in KNPL and retain the right to increase its ownership in KNPL to 50 per cent upon a positive FID decision by the consortium.

“Once in production, the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project – Goongarrie Hub is expected to be one of the largest nickel-cobalt producers in Australia,” Penkethman continued.

“The project will meet the high ESG standards expected from modern society and be a leader in responsible resource project development, as demonstrated by Ardea’s 2023 Pre-Feasibility Study.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ardea Resources Takes KNP MRE Over 6Mt Contained Nickel Mark

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) released an updated JORC Code (2012) compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Goongarrie Hub nickel-cobalt deposits within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) in Western Australia.

Ardea Resources reported the KNP global MRE (using a 0.5% Ni cut-off grade) now stands at 854 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.045 per cent cobalt for 6.1 million tonnes of contained nickel and 386,000 tonnes of contained cobalt.

Ardea is currently undertaking a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) at the Goongarrie Hub for an open pit mining operation feeding a three million tonnes per annum High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) and 0.5 million tonnes per annum Atmospheric Leach (AL) circuit using proven technology to produce Mixed Hydroxide Product (MHP) for the Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) sector.

The company has already completed the technical work streams of the PFS that is now undergoing a final review by the Competent Persons.

Upon finalisation and sign off, expected to be in early July, Ardea anticipates release the PFS by announcement on the ASX.

“The Kalgoorlie Nickel Project Goongarrie Hub Prefeasibility Study technical work streams are completed, with final sign-off shortly by the various contributors,” Ardea Resources managing director and CEO Andrew Penkethman said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Whilst completing the open pit optimisations of the resource models, it was apparent that additional tonnes of nickel-cobalt bearing Mineralised Neutraliser below the 0.5 per cent nickel reporting grade would be recovered within the mine plan.

“This extra neutralising material contributes additional project value through its magnesite component being used in the leaching circuit for acid neutralisation, to which it adds nickel-cobalt units at nil cost.

“Additionally, the Mineralised Neutraliser Fines component contribute to the nickel-cobalt production as the dominant feed for the Atmospheric Leach circuit.

“This excellent R&D outcome is protected with an international patent application recently lodged.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Ardea Resources Ups Kalgoorlie Nickel Project Highway Deposit MRE

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) reported an updated JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Highway nickel deposit within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Kalgoorlie nickel project (KNP).

Ardea Resources considers the Highway deposit an integral element in a proposed mining and ore processing infrastructure development at the KNP Goongarrie Hub.

The Highway resources extend over a strike length of 5.7km and are located on a granted mining lease (M29/214) with Native Title Mining Agreement in place.

Ardea sees Highway operating as a satellite mining operation to the Goongarrie Hub deposits with high-grade ore trucked 30km south along the Goldfields Highway to a processing plant to be constructed immediately east of the high-grade Goongarrie South deposit.

“The Highway resource upgrade is an outstanding result, which when combined with the February 2021 Goongarrie resource update, has defined 67.5 million tonnes of Measured and Indicated mineral resource at one per cent nickel and 0.07 per cent cobalt (681kt nickel and 49kt cobalt) which are available for conversion to reserve as part of Ardea’s KNP, Goongarrie Hub feasibility study,”

“Ardea management have prescribed metallurgical circuit reliability as an essential design element; with the availability of this added resource an important step along that journey.

“More significantly, reflecting the detailed mineralogical material type work in the current study, we now have a well-defined source of mineralised neutraliser.

“This has a significant potential value upgrade for the KNP financial model, as it is expected to introduce additional nickel units to the project production profile.

“Based on the 2021 MRE, we have selected diamond drill core hole sites in proposed future Highway and Goongarrie pit locations to acquire drill core for our H2 2021 bench-scale metallurgical programs.

“A core drilling contract was let for mid-July 2021.

“The total KNP MRE is now 830 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.046 per cent cobalt (5.9Mt nickel, 380kt cobalt).

“This is a world-significant asset located in an infrastructure rich location, within the best operating jurisdiction in the world.”

 

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au

 

Web: www.ardearesources.com.au

 

 

Ardea Resources Achieves High Recoveries From Metallurgic Test Work

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) carried out its first metallurgical testwork on four metallurgical samples selected from the Big Four Gold resource, located on a granted mining lease within the company’s Goongarrie nickel cobalt project (GNCP), outside Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Ardea Resources explained the laboratory testwork, using industry standard (gravity-leach) procedures, achieved very high gold recoveries of nearly 98 per cent under conditions and reagent consumptions matching industry norms.

Although presently at a scoping study level, the company considers the results to be highly encouraging, suggesting they indicate the resource has potential to achieve reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction of gold.

“Excellent results from the first ever metallurgical test work at the Big Four Gold project mark another significant step towards development of Ardea’s evolving gold assets,” Ardea Resources managing director Andrew Penkethman said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“High recoveries and a lack of deleterious elements are exactly what any miner would want, and we have achieved that here at Big Four Gold.

“It also shows what can be achieved in WA during these difficult times, with Ardea’s drilling, resource modelling, and now metallurgical testing of the Big Four Gold project all being completed since commencement in February 2020.

“Work remains to be done at Big Four Gold, but these excellent results mean that, should the deposit be developed, several options will be available.

“This will be strongly influenced by our ongoing drill programs at several targets in the GNCP, including the Aphrodite North area and follow-up drilling at Lady Charlotte.

“Ardea’s gold programs aim to assess individual targets in their own right.

“They also mark the first pass systematic assessment of a modelled gold camp, potentially comparable to the Paddington mining centre to the south or the Menzies mining centre to the north, hidden beneath transported cover within Ardea’s expansive mining and exploration tenure.

“Of course, definition of the gold potential throughout the GNCP benefits efficient development of the extensive nickel and cobalt resources whilst maximising potential returns for all stakeholders.”

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au

 

Web: www.ardearesources.com.au

 

Ardea Resources Hits Shallow Mineralisation at Mulga Plum

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) has maintained the drill result pace by reporting the intersection of shallow gold mineralisation at the company’s Mulga Plum project, northeast of Menzies in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Ardea Resources completed first-pass drilling at Mulga Plum that has demonstrated shallow gold mineralisation appears to be associated with both flat-lying and subvertical structures throughout the historic mining area, hosted within mainly potassic altered granite.

Highlighted intercept results include:

AJAR0003
2 metres at 1.19 grams per tonne gold from 20m and 2m at 2.96g/t gold from 42m;

AJAR0006
2m at 1g/t gold from 18m;

AJAR0007
2m at 1.25g/t gold from 38m;

AJAR0009
2m at 8.84g/t gold from 14m; and

AJAR0011
6m at 1.22g/t gold from 10m.

“Ardea is in the enviable position of having a large and highly prospective nickel and gold tenement package in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia,” Ardea Resources managing director Andrew Penkethman said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The Kalgoorlie Nickel Project tenements have historically been explored for near surface nickel-cobalt mineralisation but have seen limited modern and systematic exploration for gold and this represents a prime opportunity to define new gold targets.

“Ardea will continue to test the prospectivity of its large Eastern Goldfields land holding for gold and nickel sulphides.”

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au

Web: www.ardearesources.com.au

 

THE DAILY ROADHOUSE

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De Grey Mining Extends Mineralisation at Hemi Gold Discovery

THE DRILL SERGEANT: De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) reported encouraging signs from drilling underway at the recent Hemi discovery at the company’s Mallina gold project in Western Australia.

Ausgold in Heightened Drilling Mode at KGP

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ausgold (ASX: AUC) reported on recent drilling activity at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Katanning gold project (KGP) in Western Australia.

Pantoro Eyes Mineralised Extensions to Norseman Deposits

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Pantoro (ASX: PNR) reported latest drilling results from the Scotia, Daisy South and Gladstone-Everlasting deposits at the company’s Norseman gold project in Western Australia.

Ardea Resources Defines Shallow, High-Grade Gold at Big Four Gold

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) has completed an 11-hole RC drilling program at the historic Big Four gold mine, south of Goongarrie in Western Australia.

Black Cat Syndicate Relies More on Strategy Than Luck

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: All of the planets seem to be lining up for Black Cat Syndicate (ASX: BC8) as it prepares to make the transition from explorer to miner in one of Western Australia’s most overlooked gold districts. By Mark Fraser 

 

Ardea Resources Defines Shallow, High-Grade Gold at Big Four Gold

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) has completed an 11-hole RC drilling program at the historic Big Four gold mine, south of Goongarrie in Western Australia.

The Big Four gold mine is located within the footprint of the company’s Goongarrie nickel-cobalt project (GNCP).

Ardea stressed that each of the 11 drill holes completed contained gold intercepts, including:

ABFR0270
18 metres at 3.38 grams per tonne gold from 18m, including 6m at 6.03g/t gold from 20m;

ABFR0272
14m at 2.4g/t gold from 6m, including 4m at 5.73g/t gold from 6m;

ABFR0274
20m at 2.91g/t gold from 76m, including 2m at 13.6g/t gold from 76m and 2m at 5.29g/t gold from 82m and 2m at 5.01g/t gold from 92m.

“Ardea is highly encouraged by these first-pass drill results from Big Four,” Ardea Resources managing director Andrew Penkethman said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The fact that all planned holes intersected significant gold mineralisation confirms the geological model.

“Mineralisation is still open at depth and a possible fault off-set structural repetition has been modelled along strike to the north and will now be tested to define the extent of this mineralised system.

“Ardea will continue to test the prospectivity of its large Eastern Goldfields land holding for gold and nickel sulphides, in parallel to de-risking the nickel-cobalt resources within the broader Kalgoorlie nickel project.”

Ardea believes systematic gold exploration across the GNCP represents another opportunity to enhance overall project economics.

Presently, strong, coherent, and extensive gold anomalism is associated with surface lateritic nickel-cobalt mineralisation that the company considers could be indicative of underlying primary bedrock orogenic gold mineralisation.

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au

Web: www.ardearesources.com.au

 

A Lengthy Tale of Two Nickel Plays

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: A couple of nickel projects in Western Australia – one containing sulphides and the other made up of lateritic material – look set to see the light of day after some two decades of sitting on the drawing board. By Mark Fraser

Possibly the most advanced is the West Musgrave joint venture between exploration house Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) and miner Oz Minerals (ASX: OZL), where the proponents are looking to develop the Nebo-Babel sulphide deposit – an ore body that caused quite a bit of market excitement when it was initially discovered by Western Mining back in 2000.

Meanwhile, the second is the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP), which is being developed by Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) and contains a globally significant nickel and cobalt resource.

Like Nebo-Babel, the KNP has been around for a long time, having initially been established by Heron Resources in light of the WA nickel laterite boom of the late 1990s. Later, between 2005-2009, it was the subject of pre-feasibility due diligence by Vale Inco.

Shortly before the 2020 RIU Explorers conference – at which both juniors presented – Cassini completed its own pre-feasibility study for the West Musgrave project, which is located 100 kilometres north-east of Warburton, wherein a solid case for the mine’s development was made.

The PFS indicated its maiden ore reserve of 220 million tonnes at 0.33 per cent nickel and 0.36 per cent copper for a contained 720,000t of nickel and 790,000t of copper could support a mine life of 26 years – some 18 years more than suggested by scoping due diligence conducted in 2017.

The project scale of 10 million tonnes per annum remained unchanged, with target annual life of mine production set at 22,000tpa of nickel and 28,000tpa of copper concentrates.

Higher concentrate production – 27,000tpa of nickel and 33,000tpa of copper – was forecast for the first five years, which could see a six year project payback period from a decision to mine or around a three year one from the start of production.

According to brokerage Hartleys, the project was significantly de-risked by the detailed metallurgical test work, which delivered base metal recoveries at the upper end of expectations and provided good (industry standard) concentrate grades of around 10-11% nickel and 25-26% copper.

Moreover, the PFS also suggested improved operating costs thanks to increased by-product credits (including cobalt, gold, silver and platinum group metals), the use of hybrid renewable diesel power generation and innovative processing solutions such as the use of vertical roller mills, which reduces power consumption by around 15% and provides an estimated 2% improvement in nickel recoveries.

The large scale, longer life operation has come with a higher capital cost, which is now expected to be $995 million instead of the scoping capex range of $730-800 million.

Under the terms of the JV with Oz Minerals, Cassini is not required to contribute to the project capital costs until the delivery of a bankable feasibility study. As it stands the JV partners are looking to start construction sometime in 2021-22 and operations by 2023.

During the RIU show, Cassini managing director Richard Bevan said while Oz Minerals ran the PFS, the junior partner (30%) did a number of work packages.

“Oz really approached this as an operator of this asset,” he explained.

“They spent in excess of $50 million on the PFS and a number of the work packages are well passed the PFS stage, especially those that represent the potential risks of this project around metallurgy and resources.”

Meanwhile, just north of the mining hub of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Ardea is carrying out its own due diligence on the KNP, which currently contains a resource of 773Mt at 0.7% nickel and 0.05% cobalt for 5.6Mt of contained nickel and 405,000t of contained cobalt.

Within the KNP holdings sits Goongarrie, which has resources of 216Mt at 0.71% nickel and 0.06% copper for 1.5Mt of contained nickel and 130,700t of contained cobalt.

Although the history of nickel laterite projects in WA has been fairly dismal, Ardea is confident it will not fall into the same metallurgical traps as some of its predecessors like BHP (at Ravensthorpe) and Anaconda Nickel (at Murrin Murrin).

During his RIU presentation the company’s chief executive, Andrew Penkethman, pointed out Goongarrie’s ore was goethitic which, he said, was the preferred feedstock for pressure acid leaching circuits.

“It’s a crumbly iron rich material that contains the nickel and cobalt, it has low acid consumption and it can be mined and put through the process plant the same day,” he said.

Other deposits that had excess silica or clay, Penkethman noted, needed to be screened and then dried – in some cases for lengthy periods.

 

 

Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Ardea Resources boasts a large portfolio of 100 per cent-controlled West Australian-based projects.

The company’s flagship is the Goongarrie nickel-cobalt project, that forms part of the broader Kalgoorlie nickel-cobalt project in Western Australia.

Ardea claims Goongarrie to be part of the largest nickel-cobalt Resource in the developed world with potential to be a multi-generational mine offering outstanding multi-commodity exposure which includes cobalt, nickel, scandium, vanadium, chromium, aluminium and gold.

Ardea’s other WA projects include Bedonia West, comprising E63/1827 and E63/1828 covering 358 square kilometres to complete Ardea’s coverage of the Jimberlana Dyke west of the existing Bedonia prospect.

Ardea has confirmed previously identified anomalous nickel-copper-PGM soil auger geochemistry is coincident with a specific intrusive phase of the Jimberlana Dyke lopolith.

The Perrinvale E29/1006 covers 175sqkm along the eastern strike continuation of the ‘Cathedrals’ Proterozoic Dyke complex.

The application was based on Ardea recognising lopolith mineralisation controls at Bedonia.

The company hopes to secure similarly endowed lopolith geological settings, as well as the northern strike continuation of the domain boundary Ida Fault hosting the Mt Ida gold mining centre.

Goongarrie is readily global-scale project, which Ardea is developing with the aim of becoming a long-term producer of high-quality nickel-cobalt sulphate.

The project currently hosts a Resource of 773 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.05 per cent cobalt and offers plenty of upside with only five per cent of the company’s Kalgoorlie nickel-project landholding being factored in to the current resource.

Ardea is positioning Goongarrie to be a supplier of high-purity cobalt and nickel sulphate to the lithium-ion battery to meet the burgeoning demands of the growing automotive electrification, a market expected to account for 14 per cent of new car sales by 2025, whilst the cobalt sulphate market is forecasted to reach US$9.5 billion by 2025.

Increased demand for cobalt sulphate is driven by the higher energy density it provides to both electric vehicle and energy storage system batteries.

A Pre-Feasibility study demonstrated Goongarrie to be a highly valuable development project and Ardea is determined to continue to advance the project toward a final investment decision.

Recent work undertaken close to Goongarrie included rock chip sampling of old workings and sporadic outcropping that confirmed gold mineralisation over an area of at least 400 square metres at the Mulga Plum gold prospect.

The mineralisation encountered is mostly vein-hosted, returning up to 17.1 grams per tonne gold in selective quartz lode material.

All rock types assessed returned an average grade of 1.8g/t gold for all samples taken, which the company interpreted to suggest the presence of bulk tonnage potential within a dominantly granite host.

Ardea is evaluating Mulga Plum as a bulk-tonnage gold system as part of its broader aim to prove up and mine gold from its suite of projects near the Goongarrie project and these results bolstered its confidence in the project to proceed to early stage drill evaluation of the project.

A systematic shallow RC drill program of 26 angled RC holes of 50 to 70m each to define extent and orientation of near-surface gold mineralisation was being planned at the time of writing.

Much of Ardea’s 2019 was focused on the spin out of the company’s New South Wales Lachlan Fold Belt gold-base metal projects into Godolphin Resources (ASX: GRL).

This was completed in December, after which Godolphin’s development focus will be the Lewis Ponds gold-zinc and Mount Aubrey gold projects associated with the Lachlan Transverse Zone (LTZ) of the Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) in central NSW.

Since its listing in 2017, Ardea quickly became the second largest mineral tenement holder in NSW amassing a dominant land position it acquired through detailed project scale and regional data compilation and analysis.

Work completed by Ardea advanced these NSW projects towards defining four separate JORC Code-compliant mineral resources.

Work programs completed include land-holder access agreements, digitally capturing historic exploration data, geological mapping and soil auger geochemistry, leading to the definition of drill-ready targets across granted Godolphin tenure.

“We understand that different investors in Ardea have preferences for different asset exposure and with the Godolphin spin-out, we can clearly separate the WA Goongarrie nickel cobalt project nickel production opportunity from the New South Wales gold production opportunity with ancillary gold/base metal exploration,” Ardea Resources CEO Andrew Penkethman said.

“This will drive superior value for shareholders in both entities.

The New South Wales assets being in a separate fully independent vehicle will crystallise their value and allow them to be advanced independently of Ardea’s West Australian exploration and development initiatives.”

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au
Web: www.ardearesources.com.au
Directors: Andrew Penkethman, Katina Law, Ian Buchhorn, Wayne Bramwell

THE DAILY ROADHOUSE

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Pioneer Resources Estimates Initial Inferred Mineral Resource for Cade Spodumene Deposit

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Pioneer Resources (ASX: PIO) declared it has completed sufficient exploration to estimate an initial Inferred Mineral Resource for the Cade spodumene deposit within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Pioneer Dome project in Western Australia.

Calidus Resources Drilling Underpins Open Pit Resource Upgrade

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI) reported the final batch of RC drilling results from inside the planned Klondyke pit at the company’s 1.25 million-ounce Warrawoona gold project in Western Australia.

Pantoro Confirms High-Grade Mineralisation at Gladstone-Everlasting

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Pantoro Limited (ASX: PNR) released initial drilling results from the Gladstone-Everlasting deposit (Gladstone) at the company’s 50 per cent-owned Norseman gold project in Western Australia.

Cassini Resources and OZ Minerals Expand WMP Tenure

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) announced an extension to exploration tenure at the West Musgrave Project (WMP), a Joint Venture with OZ Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL) in Western Australia.

Carawine Resources Drilling at Victorian Gold-Copper Project Deposit

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Carawine Resources (ASX: CWX) has commenced diamond drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jamieson project in northeast Victoria that hosts the Hill 800 and Rhyolite Creek prospects.

Ardea Resources Set to Drill at Mulga Plum Gold Deposit

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) reported that rock chip sampling of old workings spoil and sporadic outcrop at the company’s Mulga Plum gold prospect in Western Australia has confirmed gold mineralisation over an area of at least 200 square metres.