THE DRILL SERGEANT: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) declared it would be picking up the exploration pace at the company’s Broken Hill and Commonwealth projects in New South Wales.

Impact Minerals said exploration at these sites is being invigorated under a new 2020 focus for the company underpinned by current record Platinum Group Metal (PGM) prices, palladium and rhodium in particular, and the recent Boda-Kaiser copper-gold discovery of Alkane Resources (ASX: ALK) near Dubbo.

The company explained its 2020 campaign will build on previous work by Impact and others in the Broken Hill area which resulted in the discovery of some the highest grades of all six Platinum Group Metals (PGM: platinum, palladium, rhodium, osmium, ruthenium, iridium) in Australia, together with exceptional nickel-copper grades along a 40 kilometres long belt southeast of Broken Hill.

Three key prospects for follow-up work including drilling, have been identified: these are Red Hill, Platinum Springs, and Little Broken Hill.

Across at Impact’s Commonwealth project, the company is waiting on assays from rock chip samples taken as follow-up to reconnaissance work on four key targets for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation along trend from and close to the Boda-Kaiser porphyry copper-gold discovery and where follow-up drilling by Alkane Resources is in progress.

Impact’s four targets are Boda South, Apsley, Spicers Creek and Greenobbys.

The company has also identified one new target area, Gladstone, along trend to the south of the prospects Bodangora and Lady Ilse, recently identified by Magmatic Resources (ASX: MAG).

“We are excited to be returning to explore at Broken Hill and Commonwealth where Impact has generated some highly prospective targets for currently high-priced precious metals and where followup work including extensive drilling, is required,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The company is busy designing drill programs at Red Hill and other prospects at Broken Hill to follow-up the exceptional grades discovered in our earlier work there.

“This includes drilled grades of up to 250 grams per tonne or nearly nine ounces per tonne of palladium, together with very high-grades of platinum and even exceptional levels of the rare PGMs, rhodium, currently at US$9,500 per ounce, osmium, iridium and ruthenium.

“At Commonwealth, Impact has identified five targets close to the recent Boda-Kaiser discover with potential for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation.

“We are awaiting assays from rock chip samples to help prioritise follow-up work, which will include soil geochemistry surveys and ground geophysics to identify targets that will be drilled after Broken Hill.”

Email: info@impactminerals.com.au

Web: www.impactminerals.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) has identified four undrilled priority prospects for porphyry copper-gold deposits at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Commonwealth project in the copper-gold Lachlan Fold Belt in New South Wales.

Impact Minerals said the prospects had all been identified along trend from and close to the recent Boda discovery of Alkane Resources, where drilling is in progress.

The company claimed all four prospects have characteristics suggesting they are parts of large porphyry or other intrusive-related copper-gold systems.

The Boda South prospect is the company’s highest priority as it lies south of the Boda discovery hole along the same parent intrusion to the copper-gold mineralisation which extends at least 500 metres onto Impact’s ground.

The area is unexplored because of thin alluvial cover.

The Greenobbys prospect comprises a gold-silver-pathfinder metal quartz vein system associated with circular and linear magnetic anomalies and rock chip assays up to 9 grams per tonne gold and 215g/t silver.

The Apsley prospect has strong similarities to Boda and comprises numerous magnetic anomalies in the same aged rocks and with rock chip assays of up to 8.1 per cent copper and 13.1g/t silver.

The Spicers Creek prospect returned rock chip assays of up to 1.45g/t gold and 7.8 per cent copper.

“This new data has reinforced Impact’s belief that its tenements in the Lachlan Fold Belt are very prospective for the discovery of a major porphyry copper gold deposit,” Imapct Minerals said in its ASX announcement.

“Follow up field work has commenced this week on the four priority prospects with further more detailed field checking and rock chip sampling planned.

“The results of this work will be used to help prioritise targets for ground geophysics and drilling as soon as practicable.”

Email: info@impactminerals.com.au

Web: www.impactminerals.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) announced trial mining of up to one million loose cubic metres (about 1.6 million tonnes) will be undertaken at the company’s Blackridge gold project located north of Clermont in central east Queensland.

Impact Minerals has signed an agreement for tribute mining with private contractor, Queensland-based Nimble Resources, which will take responsibility for all set up, mining, processing and rehabilitation costs at the project.

In return Impact has financially de-risked the next stage of exploration and development of Blackridge.

The company will also benefit from the receipt of a sliding scale Net Smelter Royalty (NSR) of up to 15 per cent depending on the average monthly grade of gold mined.

Impact declared the trial mining phase, if successful, would be major step forward in demonstrating the potential for a larger open pit mine at Blackridge and follows the recent recognition of large volumes of free-digging oxide ore with exceptional gold recoveries of more than 95 per cent by wet gravity processing methods in recent bulk sampling programs.

The bulk sampling programs were done in conjunction with Nimble, which was so encouraged by the results, it approached Impact to initiate the trial mining.

Nimble boasts specialist skills and equipment in both wet and dry gravity gold processing technologies and is of the opinion that a large portion of the oxide material at Blackridge may potentially be dry processed.

Nimble will initially trial a proprietary dry processing technology with a throughput capacity of about 90 cubic metres per hour (about 150 tonnes per hour).

In addition, Impact will work with Nimble to determine optimal processing routes for the other two material types in the deposit which are not suitable for dry processing: wet clay-rich material and less oxidised to fresh bedrock.

“This agreement is a very positive step forward for the Blackridge project,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We know that the best way to determine grade in coarse gold deposits such as Blackridge is to simply start mining.

“This is inherently very high risk and so this agreement gives Impact a very low risk entry to mining by trial mining of only a modest part of the mineralised area which extends over at least 1,500 metres along trend.

“In addition, Impact, under the royalty payment provisions will receive at least a modest cash flow from the trial.

“Having worked with Nimble Resources for the past 18 months Impact has established that the company is a very capable operator and we look forward to working with them and starting the trial as quickly as practicable.

“The use of their dry processing technology in the first instance also significantly decreases the environmental risk and the large water requirements for a wet processing plant.

“Impact will also continue to assess other processing alternatives for other material types which are key targets for the larger scale potential at Blackridge.”

The Blackridge project is an advanced conglomerate-hosted gold project that covers the historic Blackridge and Springs mining centres located about 25 kilometres of Clermont.

The gold fields produced about 185,000 ounces of gold from 1879 to the early 1900s from surface down to depths of about 70 metres in small shafts and related underground workings.

Impact Minerals has previously completed two phases of bulk sampling of the conglomerate material with very encouraging results from a wet gravity processing plant.

Gold was recovered from samples taken over 1,000m of trend with grades ranging from 0.07 grams per cubic metre to 2.17g/m3 at an average of 0.36g/m3.

All material sampled was free digging down to at least four to five metres below surface with gold present, in at least a few locations, throughout the profile.

Large volumes of such material are present at Blackridge over the 1,500m of trend.

Email: info@impactminerals.com.au

Web: www.impactminerals.com.au