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Augustus Minerals Limited (ASX: AUG; Augustus or the Company) is pleased to announce the commencement of the previously announced airborne Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM) Max survey over three areas within the 3,600km2 Ti-Tree Project in the Gascoyne Region. The survey should be finished this week with final data expected within four to six weeks.
- The VTEM Max survey over Cu-Ni-PGE, Broken Hill Style and Uranium targets has commenced.
- The survey is covering:
- The Money Intrusion, prospective for Cu-Ni-PGE mineralisation.
- Copper Ridge and Nick’s Bore over anomalous Copper Drilling results.
- The Coo Creek prospect where drilling by Augustus in 2023 identified strongly anomalous Zn-Pb-Ag mineralisation of possible Broken Hill Style massive sulphide.
- The Munaballya Well area which shows potential for economic uranium mineralisation.
- The surveys will help to advance the untapped potential of the Ti-Tree project to host economic mineralisation of multiple commodities.
VTEM
UTS Geophysics is conducting the helicopter borne VTEM Max survey comprising 646-line km over three separate survey areas. The system is excellent for locating discrete conductive anomalies as well as mapping lateral and vertical variations in resistivity which helps map structure, alteration and rock type. The system also collects magnetic data through a caesium magnetometer.
Figure 1 Prospects and VTEM Survey areas
Money Intrusion
The Money Intrusion, which has proven potential to host Ni-Cu-Co-PGE (platinum group elements), is part of the regional Mundine Well Dolerite Suite, a regionally extensive dolerite (strike length >80km). Mapping, aeromagnetics and multi-spectral imagery show that the Money Intrusion within the Ti-Tree Project covers a strike length greater than 16km, reaching widths >600m in the north (Figure 2).
The VTEM Max system will look to identify conductive anomalies which may reflect concentrations of massive to semi-massive sulphide along the thicker parts of the Money Intrusion within AUG tenure.
This article includes content from Augustus Minerals, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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Diversification can be key to a profitable mining and exploration strategy. While there's no shortage of companies that have experienced great success by focusing on a single commodity, there's always an element of risk to that approach. There is always the risk that certain commodities will fall in price whilst others rise. Augustus Minerals, a newly listed exploration company on the ASX (AUG) is cognizant of this fact. An exploration company based in Western Australia, Augustus has acquired a 100-percent interest in a land package covering some 3,600 square kilometers in Western Australia's Upper Gascoyne region. Although traditionally known as a source of base metals, gold and uranium, the Gascoyne is rapidly emerging as a prime target for rare earths and lithium discoveries.
As an early mover to the region, Augustus’s vast landholding is highly prospective for lithium, rare earths, copper and gold. Its Ti-Tree project contains 85 kilometers of the Ti Tree and Mingabar shear zones, with extensive, untested, multi-element mineralization and surface anomalies.
The Gascoyne region is a large emerging critical mineral province with several deposits having been discovered in the last few years. These include multiple Ironstone REE discoveries by Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE), Hastings Technology's (ASX:HAS) Yangibana Ironstone REE project and Lanthanein Resources' (ASX:LNR) Lyons Ironstone REE project, as well as a large lithium discovery at Delta Lithium's (ASX:DLT) Yinnetharra location.
Directed by a highly experienced management team with extensive knowledge about mining and exploration in the Gascoyne, Augustus's exploration program will focus on more than 50 priority targets already identified by the company. These include potential lithium bearing pegmatites, REE-rich ironstones and shear/porphyry-hosted copper systems. Thus far, the company has completed multiple geophysical surveys and collected more than 15,000 soil samples.
Company Highlights
- Augustus Minerals is an Australian exploration company focused on the highly-prospective Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
- The company has 100 percent ownership of a land package covering 3,600 square kilometers.
- Augustus has identified multiple high-priority lithium, rare earth and copper targets throughout its project, with strong mineralization intersected at multiple locations across multiple commodities.
- Augustus's leadership team has the benefit of significant local knowledge regarding exploration of the Gascoyne province.
Key Asset
Ti Tree Project
Situated in the Shire of Upper Gascoyne and the Shire of Carnarvon, the Ti Tree project displays significant exploration potential for a number of different mineralised styles as well as possibly, multi-commodity discoveries. Spanning a contiguous 3,600 square kilometers, it also has the distinction of being one of the largest properties in the region. Augustus Minerals maintains 100 percent ownership over Ti-Tree, which intersects along the shear of the same name.
The company has identified several high-priority drilling targets along the Ti-Tree and Mingabar structures ready for reverse circulation, diamond or air core drilling.
Highlights:
- Emerging Geological Province: The Gascoyne region displays highly prospective geology and has been the site of multiple rare earth and lithium discoveries in recent years, but has experienced limited historic exploration — making it a prime opportunity for Augustus Minerals.
- Multiple Commodities: Augustus has identified more than 50 significant lithium, rare earth and copper targets. Many of these high-quality targets are ready for drilling.
- Size and Speed: The Ti Tree Project consists of a single coherent block of tenements covering 3,600 square kilometers with 85 kilometers of strike along the Ti-Tree Shear. As an early mover in the region, Augustus was able to gain a considerable advantage in securing this project, into which it has thus far invested $5 million.
- Fertile Geology: Augustus's investment displays the same geology as multiple highly successful neighboring discoveries.
- Mineralization: Current mineral resource targets include:
- 27 rare earth targets across 65 kilometers of strike. All targets display strong thorium radiometric signatures.
- Multiple mafic intrusions with copper-nickel-PGE (platinum group elements) mineralization. The copper resource is both shear-hosted and porphyry-related.
- Elevated lithium stream samples over 10 kilometers of strike length. The target area displays the same geological host rock as the Yinnetharra lithium discovery.
- A narrow, shear vein-hosted gold occurrence with anomalous mineralization displayed in several surrounding areas. The area, known as the Bassit Bore, outcrops at the surface, where visible gold is readily identifiable in hand specimens. Samples collected over 600 meters returned very high gold values.
Management Team
Andrew Ford – General Manager, Exploration
Andrew’s career spans 35 years of exploration and mine development experience in multiple commodities for both majors, including Homestake and Barrick Gold, and junior ASX-listed companies. He has led technical teams throughout Australia, Africa, USA, Europe and Asia, including leading the geology team at the Bawdwin base metals project in Myanmar through the DFS process.
In his most recent role Andrew has led the geology team at Hastings Technology Metals with a focus on resource growth and exploration at the Yangibana Rare Earths Project, where Mineral Resources have now grown to 29.93Mt of TREO.
Brian Rodan - Executive Chairman
Brian Rodan is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy with 45 years’ experience. Previously, he was the managing director and owner of Australian Contract Mining (ACM), a mid-tier mining contracting company that successfully completed $1.5 billion worth of work over a 20-year period.
For 15 years, Rodan held various roles with Eltin Limited (including general manager between 1993 and 1996 and executive director between 1996 and 1999), Australia’s largest full service ASX-listed contract mining company with an annual turnover of $850 million. He was a founding director of Dacian Gold (2013) and Desert Metals (2020) and became the largest shareholder upon listing both companies on the ASX.
Rodan is currently executive chairman of Siren Gold and Iceni Gold Limited, and is currently the largest shareholder in both companies as well as Augustus Minerals.
Graeme Smith - Non-Executive Director
Graeme Smith is an experienced resources sector chief financial officer, company secretary and corporate executive who has worked with mining and exploration companies with operations in Australia (Croesus Mining NL, Genesis Minerals Limited, Jabiru Metals Limited, Breaker Resources NL, Pluton Resources Limited) and overseas (Tanga Resources Limited, Ikwezi Mining Limited) for the past 30 years.
He is the principal of Wembley Corporate Services, which provides company secretarial, CFO and corporate governance services to public companies.
Smith is a fellow of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, and the Governance Institute of Australia. He is currently the company secretary for Alto Metals, Avenira, Renegade Exploration and Enterprise Metals, and was a director of ASX-listed Anglo Australian Resources.
Darren Holden - Non-Executive Director
Dr. Darren Holden is a geologist with 28 years of industry experience in mineral exploration and exploration technologies. He has worked in North America, the Pacific and Australia, where he has been involved in discovery-stage copper, gold, silver, molybdenum and platinum group elements deposits. He specializes in regional to local scale targeting using the integration of geology, geophysics and geochemistry.
Holden is a past vice-president of Geoinformatics/Fractal Geoscience and a former CEO of a publicly listed gold explorer. He currently runs exploration advisory business GeoSpy, and is a co-founder of successful private project generation businesses Marlee Minerals and Odette Geoscience. He is also currently a director Aurumin (ASX:AUN) and chair of OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6), as well as several private companies.
Holden holds a BSc (hons) first class (geology) from The University of Western Australia and a PhD (history) from The University of Notre Dame Australia. He is a fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a member of the Geological Society of Australia.
High-Grade Tungsten Discovery at Western Queen
Highlights
- Recent diamond drilling has discovered exceptionally high-grade tungsten (scheelite) mineralisation within the Western Queen gold system
- Drill-hole WQDD013 returned:
- 4m @ 4.58% WO3, 0.72 g/t Au from 174.85m; including
- 2.05m @ 8.71% WO3, 1.38 g/t Au from 176.85m; and
- 0.65m @ 18.35% WO3, 2.97 g/t Au from 176.85m
- Strong continuous tungsten anomaly outlined over 2km from drillhole XRF data parallels the Western Queen Shear and known high-grade gold mineralisation
- Tungsten occurs at surface between the Western Queen South and Western Queen Central open pits with widths up to 20 metres
- Follow up wet assays for tungsten of selected pulps from RC drilling which formed part of the 2021 mineral resource estimate at Western Queen have been submitted and will be reported when available
- Tungsten is considered a critical and strategic material in world economies due to its economic importance, supply risk and limited substitution options
In addition to the assaying, ultraviolet scanning of the diamond core from WQDD013 has highlighted scheelite within altered mafic. The mineralisation is essentially scheelite-pyroxene +/- magnetite+/-gold skarn zones 2.1Mt @ 2.42 g/t Au for 163,200oz 1
Figure 1 shows the white-blue fluorescence characteristic of scheelite under ultraviolet light. Mineralisation comprises of massive aggregates of white (visible light) grains (up to 5mm) of scheelite paralleling the dominant foliation within the shear zone.
Figure 1 – WQDD013 (0.65m @ 18.35 WO3) scheelite intersection under UV light*Analysis by pXRF is indicative and may not represent the true grade of tungsten
Of great significance is the subsequent review of all of the pXRF data routinely collected by Rumble which has shown tungsten is widespread within the Western Queen gold mineralising system.
Peter Harold, Managing Director and CEO commented“the discovery of the very high-grade tungsten at Western Queen is an unexpected bonus for us from the recent drilling which was targeting extensions to the high-grade gold lodes. While it is very early days the grades of the intersections are exceptional and well above the grades of other tungsten resources globally. We are now waiting with trepidation for the results from the 2021 drill pulps. This discovery shows the huge optionality of the Rumble tenements and the ability of our highly experienced exploration team to make new discoveries.”
Western Queen Tungsten Discovery
Tungsten mineralisation within drill hole WQDD013 (refer to Table 1) returned a spectacular intersection that included:
- 4.05m @ 4.58% WO3, 0.72 g/t Au from 174.85m; including
- 2.05m @ 8.71% WO3, 1.38 g/t Au from 176.85m; including
- 0.65m @ 18.35% WO3, 2.97 g/t Au from 176.85m.
Mineralisation contains large aggregates of scheelite grains (up to 5mm) occurring parallel to the main foliation trend. The mineralisation is essentially multiple scheelite-pyroxene (tremolite)+/-magnetite+/-gold exoskarn zones associated with the Western Queen orogenic shear zone (host to gold mineralisation) within dominant Archaean mafic amphibolite lithologies. The skarn development is thought to have been a later stage to the main gold event at Western Queen.
All previous drill holes completed by Rumble as part of the 2021 Western Queen gold resource estimate (2.1Mt @ 2.42 g/t Au for 163,200oz*) have subsequently been analysed for tungsten (W) by pXRF. Review of the pXRF analytical data has shown some 87 reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drill (DD) holes completed by Rumble have reported >500ppm W. Analytical results from pXRF analysers are indicative and may not reflect the true tungsten (W) grade.
Contouring of the pXRF tungsten (W) drill hole results has highlighted the following (refer to Figure 3):
- Very strong tungsten continuity over 2km (>100ppm W contour) with the same strike direction, orientation and position as the Western Queen Shear Zone which hosts the Western Queen gold deposits; and
- Between the Western Queen Central and Western Queen South open pits, the tenor of tungsten increases significantly with some 900m of strike >1000ppm W.
Additionally, a number of drill holes were strongly anomalous in tungsten (W) near surface within oxidised material
Next Steps
Re-assaying of select pulps from the previous Rumble gold resource drilling programs based on the pXRF tungsten analyses is underway to ascertain the spatial variability and tenor of the scheelite mineralisation. Up to 250 pulps from selected RC and diamond holes drilled by Rumble will initially be collected and submitted for wet analysis utilising complete digest through fusion XRF.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Rumble Resources, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Allup Acquires 100% of McLaren Valuable Heavy Mineral Sands Project, West Eucla Basin, WA and Conducts Placement
Highlights
- Advanced Valuable Heavy Mineral Sands (VHMS) project in WA has an indicated and inferred JORC Resource (2012) of 280Mt @ 4.8% Heavy Mineral near surface
- Project comprises 333 sq km of tenements, 150km east of Norseman in the mining-friendly jurisdiction of Western Australia.
- Potential for expanded MRE by including results not in current resource extended, plus extended mine life through additional drilling.
- Ilmenite, a key titanium mineral, is priced well above international silica and kaolin prices at more than US$300/t1 due to increasing titanium shortages.
- Strong ilmenite market demand expected to continue due to supply deficits and mine closures in Kenya, South Africa, and Mozambique
- Allup plans to focus on a lower-cost Capex design to fast-track mine development and produce a bulk concentrate.
- Allup will advance PFS and BFS for McLaren with infill drilling, and metallurgical and mineralogical evaluations, to confirm project economics.
- Placement of $360,000 to raise working capital.
McLaren Project, WA
McLaren VHMS Project (E69/2388 and E69/2386) comprises 333km2, located on the western side of the Eucla Basin, adjacent to the Fraser Range in Western Australia (Figure 1).
McLaren is an advanced-stage exploration project with an indicated and inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 280Mt @ 4.8% Heavy Mineral for 13.5Mt in-situ HM completed in 2022.
Allup Silica Managing Director Andrew Haythorpe said: "This Project presents an excellent opportunity for Allup Silica to fulfill its plan of moving into production. Albeit a different sand, the mining and washing processes for ilmenite are similar to silica sand, as well as the near-surface mineralisation and low strip ratios. However, the higher product price and lower shipping volumes present a compelling opportunity for development.
Because of the previous work completed and the increasingly high value of titanium minerals, this opportunity presents a faster and higher confidence pathway for Allup Silica and its shareholders. The ground is accessible in all seasons of the year, allowing for more rapid progress. Infill drilling and further metallurgical work is planned to commence as soon as practicable so that we can advance a Pre-Feasibility Study and move onto a Bankable Feasibility Study for the project."
Figure 1: Location of McLaren Valuable Heavy Mineral Sands Project
Acquisition Consideration for 100% of the McLaren VHM Project
The Company has agreed to pay the following consideration:
- A$150,000 in cash for 100% of ELs
- Allup grants a 1.5% Royalty to the vendors (Westover Holdings Pty Ltd and Wild Side (WA) Pty Ltd)
- Allup will issue 2m options exercisable at 20c on or before 5 years from issue, with consideration of
- $0.001 per APS share, with a vesting condition being completion of a Bankable Feasibility Study and the Ilmenite concentrate sales exceeding US$500/t from the Project
- 4,241,571 shares upon completion of the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS); (PFS Milestone) and
- A further 4,300,583 shares will be issued upon completion of a Feasibility Study (FS Milestone).
The PFS Milestone is satisfied upon completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study on commercially viable terms and other criteria that the Parties agree in writing.
In the event that the PFS Milestone is not achieved within 24 months, the Parties agree to enter into good faith negotiations for a period of 5 business days with a view to agree an alternative basis on which the PFS Milestone Shares (or any part thereof) may be issued to the Vendors.
Subsequent to the PFS Period, the Purchaser agrees to use all reasonable endeavours to conduct a Bankable Feasibility Study in respect of the Tenements.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Allup Silica Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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