Latest news with #ExplorationIncentiveScheme
West Australian
21-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Strickland expands WA gold hunt for fresh intrusive-related targets
Strickland Metals has turned up the heat at its Yandal gold project in Western Australia's northern Goldfields by expanding a key gravity survey to chase down a string of new intrusion-related gold (IRG) targets across a juicy 19-kilometre stretch of prospective ground. The move follows the company's recent discovery of IRG-style mineralisation near its 109,000-ounce Dusk 'til Dawn gold find and could set the stage for a new pipeline of high-impact drill targets. The discovery of a new style of gold-bearing structure came in March after the company spent several months looking over the data from geochemical and geophysical work. The analysis confirmed two sizeable, mineralised corridors - rich in gold, molybdenum, copper, bismuth and tellurium—stretching across a 7.5km strike previously only lightly explored. Re-logging of historical drill chips revealed key alteration minerals, such as chlorite, K-feldspar and epidote, hinting at strong hydrothermal activity. Expert interpretations by geochemist Nigel Brand and geophysicist Barry Bourne suggest the scale and chemistry of the system indicate significant fluid flow, pointing to the presence of a large gold system. Armed with the latest information, Strickland planned a new geophysical survey, with tight 50-metre line spacings, across 9km of the structural corridor immediately to the south of the Dusk 'til Dawn camp. An original high-resolution survey focused on a 10km stretch further south and running north of the company's Horse Well camp. The recent work has, therefore, filled the gap between the two camps, bringing the total strike length under investigation to a hefty 19km. The newly targeted ground sits in a prime position and bears all the hallmarks of the intrusion-related gold (IRG) system already unearthed at Dusk 'til Dawn. It features the same type of low-density gravity anomalies that led to earlier successes, plus a scattering of historic gold hits that suggest there may be much more lurking just below surface. Strickland says it is aiming to replicate the Dusk 'til Dawn discovery model across the new ground and is resampling historical 1990s drill chips and has fresh multi-element geochemical assays now underway. Alteration mapping is also being completed and the results - combined with high-resolution gravity modelling - are expected to shape the next generation of targets by June. When the modelling and analysis are wrapped up, the company plans to launch a diamond drilling campaign to test the IRG system at Dusk 'til Dawn - marking the first time the undercover prospect will have been put to the test with the drill bit. This will be a major step forward in unravelling the true potential of what's shaping up to be a compelling gold target. The company's expanded gold hunt has also caught the eye of the WA government, which is now throwing its support behind the company with a co-funded drilling grant. The backing comes under the State's Exploration Incentive Scheme and will help bankroll the first drill holes into the newly identified targets. Strickland already sits on a sizeable 400,400-ounce inferred gold resource across its broader Yandal project. Key deposits include the 129,500-ounce Palomino complex, the 126,000-ounce Warmblood prospect, and the 108,900 ounces already defined at Dusk 'til Dawn. The company's project area spans 70 square kilometres of prospective greenstone rock along the Celia shear zone. It is also just 50km north of Northern Star Resources' huge 10-million-ounce Jundee gold project. Beyond Strickland's exploration work in Australia, the company has been focusing on its Rogozna gold and base metal project in Serbia. A recent resource upgrade to 7.3M gold equivalent ounces, coupled with an aggressive 50,000m diamond drilling program, has piqued the interest of Chinese resource giant Zijin Mining, which lobbed $5M into the kitty for 55M shares, representing 2.4 per cent of the company's register. Not surprisingly, the move has attracted widespread interest in the company's activities, and if the gossip is true, it may have also attracted some corporate interest in one of Strickland's Serbian neighbours. Adriatic Metals, with a current ore reserve of 12.3 million tonnes at 192 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 5.7 per cent zinc, 3.6 per cent lead, 1.5 g/t gold and 0.5 per cent copper, has been subject to some heavy buying overnight. The company's share price surged 25 per cent on the back of rumours of an imminent takeover. Strickland is cashed up and ready to roll, with $34.8M in the bank at the end of March and a further $5M investment from major shareholder Zijin since then. With drilling plans nearly finalised, gravity data rolling in and assay results on the horizon, Strickland looks to be assembling a powerful playbook for cracking Yandal's undercover IRG code - and the next round of news could be golden. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
News.com.au
05-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Western Australia's incentive scheme continues to supercharge minerals drilling
WA's Exploration Incentive Scheme has been operating since April 2009 to drive greenfields exploration Scheme has delivered numerous success stories over the years with OBM identifying high-grade gold Round 31 of the scheme has set aside $7.8m to co-fund drilling across 49 projects There's simply no getting around the fact that mineral resources are the beating heart of Western Australia and the state government is well aware of that. With the mining industry having contributed 44% of the state's gross state product in the 2023-24 financial year, there's vested interest in keeping the industry running. One key way to ensure the health of the industry is ensuring that there's a healthy level of greenfields exploration – that is exploring in previously unexplored or underexplored areas – to find new resources. To promote and accelerate exploration in these regions, the WA state government started the Exploration Incentive Scheme in April 2009. which offers co-funding for 50% of the costs of various types of exploration activity such as drilling, geophysics and energy analysis. The scheme has delivered numerous success stories, the most recent of which was Ora Banda (ASX:OBM) identifying high-grade gold mineralisation at its Little Gem discovery using co-funding from Round 29 of the twice-yearly program. Others include two drillholes intersecting significant gold mineralisation at Yandal Resources' (ASX:YRL) New England Granite prospect (Round 28), high-grade niobium intercepts from Dreadnought Resources' (ASX:DRE) Stinger prospect (Round 28), and a new rare earth element lode at Kingfisher Mining's (ASX:KFM) MW2 prospect (Round 29). Round 31 saw the state government offer $11.2m across the three programs with the lion's share going to support drilling with 49 projects receiving grants totalling $7.8m. Critical minerals are the target of 50% of the drilling applications while a full 75% of the geophysics grants are going towards discovering potential new deposits. WA's Mines and Petroleum Minister David Michael said the EIS plays a pivotal role in overcoming the financial barriers that often prevent early-stage projects from reaching their full potential. Here are some of the winners for Round 31. Black Canyon (ASX:BCA) Black Canyon has been awarded up to $122,500 under the EIS for an upcoming reverse circulation drill program of up to 150 holes totalling 3000m at its Wandanya manganese and iron project. Approvals are in place and a Heritage Survey was recently completed allowing the clearing of access tracks and drill lines for the program to commence. Wandanya represents a new w exploration model on the eastern margin of the Oakover Basin where the company has only drill tested 240m of the 3km long manganese target where drilling had returned results such as 5m at 31.1% manganese from surface and 5m at 32.4% manganese from 3m. Drilling will also test outcropping iron formations that returned high grade assays of up to 64.3% iron. Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX) Buxton landed a $180,000 grant to co-fund maiden drilling at the Madman project about 375km northeast of Wiluna, WA. The project has similarities to the 8.4Moz gold and copper Havieron orebody discovered by Newcrest and Greatland Gold, which in turn launched Greatland's US$475 million bid to acquire the nearby Telfer mine from Newmont. One of the best gold discoveries in Australia in the past decade, Havieron was discovered under cover by targeting a similar magnetic feature to Madman, which is interpreted to lie under shallow cover close to the major crustal boundary, the Marloo Fault. The company has completed a reconnaissance visit to meet key local stakeholders at Glenayle and Carnegie, stations along the famous Canning Stock Route which have contributed to derisking logistics for the drill program. It has also submitted a heritage survey request after securing land access from the Mungarlu Nurrarakatja Rirraunkaja Aboriginal Corporation. However, it does not need to wait on any of these to start the EIS drilling. Errawarra Resources (ASX:ERW) While Errawarra is focused on its Elizabeth Hill silver project, it has secured EIS funding for drilling at its Andover West project. Andover West sits 30km south-southwest of Karratha with exploration initially targeting only mafic intrusion hosted nickel-copper mineralisation. However, significant lithium-caesium-tantalum discoveries reported by Azure Minerals and their ongoing evaluation highlighted the potential for LCT pegmatite on Errawarra's adjoining tenement. ERW has identified identified two prospective lithium pegmatite swarms within its project tenement located along strike of the Azure discoveries. GreenTech Metals (ASX:GRE) GreenTech Metals has received two EIS grants for drilling at the Whundo project and Osborne joint venture project. Recent Stage 2 drilling at the Whundo project in the West Pilbara, WA, to test two major conductors on the unmined Shelby and Austin ore shoots returned mineralised zones with variable high-grade intersections. At Austin, a hole returned a 7.14m intersection grading 1.46% copper, 1.23% zinc and 0.08g/t gold from 277.16m while drilling at Shelby hit a 9.94m zone at 1.32% copper and 0.18g/t gold from 598.2m. The Osborne JV with Artemis Resources about 15km southeast of Karratha is highly prospective for lithium and nickel. High grade lithium pegmatites have been discovered with assays returning up to 3.6% Li2O over a combined strike of 5km. RareX (ASX:REE) RareX has secured a grant of up to $160,000 for drilling and $15,000 for mobilisation costs for its Khaleesi project in WA's eastern Yilgarn region about 290km northeast of Kalgoorlie. The company has already identified extensive gallium mineralisation at the project with aircore drilling returning intersections up to 86g/t gallium while rock chips have returned up to 81g/t. This has identified a large 5km by 3km moderately mineralised body. It plans to complete between 300m and 1300m of RC drilling at the project, with an average hole depth of 100m, across six targets. Targets include a mix of magnetic, gravity and geochemical anomalies from historical geophysics and aircore drilling. Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) Over in the Kimberley region, Trek Metals has secured a grant of $180,000 to test the Martin and Zahn projects at the Christmas Creek project. It was awarded based on the company's commitment to target major new greenfields gold discoveries undercover in frontier locations such as Christmas Creek. The 1183km2 project southwest of Halls Creek is an underexplored, largely concealed district-scale gold and rare earths exploration opportunity. Previous exploration to test if the area is an extension of the prolific Granites-Tanami Orogen demonstrated a correlation to the sequences that host Newmont Mining's Tanami gold mine in the Northern Territory. Visible gold was observed in the high-grade intervals intersected by drill holes at the Martin prospect while limited work completed to date at Zahn has indicated the presence of wide zones of low-grade gold mineralisation and the coincidence of later fluid focusing structures intersecting these broad zones. Western Mines Group has secured two EIS awards totalling $440,000 for exploration drilling its Mulga Tank project. The company plans to drill three diamond holes – one in the main body of the Complex and two targeting the komatiite channel system in tenement E39/2134. Diamond hole EIS8 aims to test the eastern portion of the Mobile MT anomaly and basal contact of the Mulga Tank Ultramafic Complex near MTD027. Meanwhile, the two holes will test the recently confirmed komatiite channel system in tenement E39/2134 - targeting the basal contact and stratigraphy of a roughly 1.3km long body.
West Australian
05-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Critica to test big new REE targets at high-grade WA project
Rare earths project developer Critica Limited is about to unleash the drill bit on a batch of exciting 8-plus-kilometre-long satellite targets, which have the potential to supercharge its already massive global resource at the company's Brothers rare earths project in Western Australia's Yalgoo mining hub. After receiving the government exploration green light last week, the company is preparing the ground at two of its biggest clay-hosted heavy rare earth prospects, dubbed Aurora and Juno, ahead of an air core drilling campaign. The promising new targets are a stone's throw from Critica's flagship Jupiter deposit, which is home to the largest and highest-grade clay rare earths resource in Australia. Jupiter has an inferred resource of 1.78 billion tonnes grading 1651 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth elements (TREO). Previous drilling served up a tantalising amuse-bouche, with holes at Juno in particular lighting up with hits of up to 8 metres at 4256ppm TREO and 34 per cent magnet rare earths. The hits included highly prized heavy rare earths such as dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, which are all under tight Chinese export controls and key to electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and military technology. Critica's main Jupiter deposit currently hosts 25,000t dysprosium, more than 5000t terbium and 131,000t yttrium as part of its heavy metal inventory. Any new drilling results that back up earlier findings at Juno and Aurora - with richer MREO and heavy rare earth element ratios than already discovered at Jupiter - could strongly boost Critica's position at the negotiating table for processing routes and offtake deals. At a time when geopolitical tensions are fuelling Western hunger for secure rare earth supplies, Critica says it isn't wasting any time getting the drill bit into the ground and will shortly mobilise rigs to site. The program has also received a funding leg up after Critica successfully applied for a WA Government's minerals Exploration Incentive Scheme grant, which the company expects will cover up to half of its planned air core drill costs. Critica says beneficiation tests are ongoing at its Jupiter deposit, meanwhile, with the company also working on producing an initial mixed rare earth carbonate ahead of results expected throughout the year. The company recently revealed that by using a simple flotation process it had managed to convert a representative sample of Jupiter's mineralisation with an initial grade of 1430ppm TREO into a remarkable high-grade concentrate of 13,310ppm TREO. When 94.5 per cent of the material was removed, the remaining concentrated product still ran at an impressive REE recovery rate of more than 50 per cent without being further optimised. Critica says it remains well funded to make progress on all fronts with nearly $5 million in its coffers at the end of March, together with a recently banked $1M R&D refund cheque. With China's grip on rare earth exports tightening and the West scrambling for alternatives, Critica's run appears well timed. If its heavy rare earth hits hold up, Critica could find itself sitting on the largest – and one of the most strategically important - clay REE resources in the country. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Western Mines receives EIS funding for Mulga Tank project in Australia
Australian mining company Western Mines Group has received two awards totalling A$440,000 ($281,256) for further drilling at the Mulga Tank nickel-copper-platinum group elements project in Western Australia (WA). The financial support was granted under the WA State Government's Co-funded Exploration Drilling Programme, part of the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS). The company was successful in both of its two applications in EIS Round 31. The Mulga Tank project is located on the Minigwal Greenstone Belt in the Eastern Goldfields region of WA. The first award of a maximum of A$220,000 was allocated to drill a deep exploration hole within the main body of the Mulga Tank complex, targeting a sulphide-enriched area near higher-grade geochemical results. The second maximum award of A$220,000 will support drilling two diamond holes to explore a komatiite channel system within tenement E39/2134, located north of the main body of the Mulga Tank complex. Western Mines plans to commence drilling any time after 1 June 2025, as part of its exploration plans for the year. The latest funding will enable Western Mines to drill another deep diamond hole over 1.5km, following up on previous successful drilling programme aided by EIS awards in Rounds 26 and 28. Western Mines started deep diamond drilling at its Mulga Tank project in April last year. The upcoming hole aims to target the eastern portion of the MobileMT anomaly at the base of the intrusion. In addition to the main body drilling, the company will drill two diamond holes to investigate a 1.3km-long komatiite body, aiming to reach the basal contact not previously accessed by shallower reverse circulation holes. This drilling will record the stratigraphy of the komatiite system and target visible nickel sulphide mineralisation. Western Mines Group chairman Rex Turkington said: 'Once again, congratulations and great work by Caedmon, Ben and the exploration team in our fourth successful EIS application round – especially to again receive two awards in this round, both for the maximum amount of $220,000 for deep diamond drilling. The first award will be used to drill another exciting deep hole aimed at testing the significant MobileMT target at the base of the Mulga Tank Complex. The second award will step out to test the komatiite channels up the belt, looking to capture the stratigraphy of the system and target the basal contact. Previous EIS drilling has been very successful and we hope that continues.' The Australian Government has offered A$11.2m across three EIS programmes including Round 31, Series 8 of the Energy Analysis Programme (EAP) and Venture 2 of the Co-funded Geophysics Programme. A total of 49 projects will be funded with A$7.8m for drilling, 25 geophysics ventures with A$3.2m and three EAP projects with A$200,000. "Western Mines receives EIS funding for Mulga Tank project in Australia" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
West Australian
28-04-2025
- Business
- West Australian
$440K govt grant to extend Western Mines Goldfields drilling program
Western Mines Group has been granted two applications under the WA Government's Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for a total of $440,000 to co-fund more drilling at the company's Mulga Tank nickel-copper project in the Eastern Goldfields. Both awards comprise the maximum 50 per cent co-funding available under the government incentive program and were awarded within a competitive application process. WMG will put the funding towards the direct drilling costs of three diamond holes to further test the main body of the company's Mulga Tank complex and an interpreted komatiite channel system that is 8.2 kilometres northwest of the complex. The work will include a 1500-metre deep diamond hole into the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex to follow up results from a previous diamond drilling program and an EIS-funded hole that was drilled last year. The new hole, designated EIS8, will target the eastern portion of a Mobile magneto-telluric anomaly at the base of the intrusion. It will pass close to higher grade geochemical results from a previous diamond hole put into the zone. WMG believes the targeted zone could represent a sulphide-enriched keel and/or a feeder vent for the overall intrusion. The company has also designed two more diamond drill holes to probe to about 700m depth in one of the numerous elongate inferred komatiitic channels in its contiguous exploration licence, about 8.2km northwest of the proposed single deep hole. Komatiite rocks are a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock defined as having crystallised from a lava of at least 18 per cent magnesium oxide and containing low silicon, potassium and aluminium and high to extremely high magnesium. The rare rocks almost all formed during the Archaean Eon, between 4.03–2.5 billion years ago, although a few younger examples are known. Geographically, komatiites are mainly distributed to Archaean shield areas – including Mulga Tank for example - and occur with other ultramafic and high-magnesian mafic volcanic rocks in Archaean greenstone belts. WMG first tested the Mulga Tank channel system during a belt-wide reverse circulation drilling program last year. The two new holes will follow up the results of two holes drilled under a previous EIS grant into one of the elongate zones. They will test a body interpreted from aeromagnetic imagery to be about 1.3km long and which drilling confirms as high-magnesium oxide olivine cumulate/dunite and komatiite lithologies, with visible nickel sulphide mineralisation. The planned holes will examine the stratigraphy of the komatiite system and target basal contact that last year's reverse circulation holes did not reach. The company has undertaken various diamond and reverse circulation drilling programs at its Mulga Tank project over the past two years, which have demonstrated significant nickel sulphide mineralisation and an extensive nickel sulphide mineral system within the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex. The company's exploration has included three deep co-funded diamond holes drilled with the aid of its EIS grants in rounds 26 and 28 of the State Government's co-funded exploration drilling program. Previous EIS awards have been instrumental in the discovery of an extensive nickel sulphide mineral system within the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex. The proposed deep EIS hole, EIS8, will look to test the basal contact of the complex and will target the eastern portion of a conductive MobileMT anomaly that was 'grazed' by a non-EIS hole. That hole returned 96m at 0.40 per cent nickel and 0.016 per cent cobalt from 1208m, including 38m at 0.56 per cent nickel and 0.016 per cent cobalt from 1262m, and 8m at 1.11 per cent nickel and 0.018 per cent cobalt from 1270m at a depth corresponding to the MT anomaly. These results are hosted within heavily disseminated sulphide mineralisation that could represent Perseverance-style 'cloud' sulphides occurring near a basal massive sulphide accumulation. WMG has carefully planned a mix of the two drilling methods at Mulga Tank, using reverse circulation rigs to scout and infill previous drilling and then to prove-up the extent of shallow disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation. The outcome of this work is reflected in the company's giant mineral resource modelling released two weeks ago, containing an eye-watering estimated 5.3 million tonnes of contained nickel, 257,000t cobalt, 161,000t copper and 1.1M ounces combined platinum and palladium. The resource included a stunning combined indicated and inferred total of 1.97 billion tonnes at 0.27 per cent nickel, 131 parts per million (ppm) cobalt, 82ppm copper and 17 parts per billion combined platinum and palladium. WMG's diamond drilling program comprises specific areas of investigation by testing deeper targets for basal massive sulphides potentially hosting nickel, copper and platinum group elements. So far, the company has only drilled the relatively shallow disseminated zone within the more densely drilled parts of its central grid over the complex. Ample space is indicated across the magnetic signature of the central complex area for lateral extensions of this zone. Additionally, the company has only scratched the edge of the possible significance of the multiple north and northwest trending multiple komatiitic feeder/channel system that radiates outwards from the main complex for as much as 15km. And the company has yet to flesh out the extent of the deeper massive sulphide system that may be lurking at depth in or near the keel of the intrusive complex. The next deep hole will help resolve this. Under the terms of the two EIS grants, WMG can kick off drilling of the latest holes from June 1 and the work will be included in its exploration plans for the year. The current nickel price has increased by US$305 (A$478) per tonne since the beginning of the year and is currently US$15,606 (A$24,458) per tonne, offering a great portent for the project's potential. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
