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Astute Metals NL (ASX: ASE) (“ASE”, “Astute” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce a significant upgrade of the Mineral Resources at its 100%-owned Governor Broome Heavy Mineral Sands Project in the South West of Western Australia.
Key Highlights
- Substantial 18% upgrade in Governor Broome Project Measured and Indicated resource tonnes following successful in-fill drill programs.
- Combined 93.4Mt of Resources now in the high- confidence Measured (28.4Mt) and Indicated (65Mt) Resource Categories
- Latest Mineral Assemblage results demonstrate high-value mineralogy at the Jack Track Deposit, including:
- Combined Jack Track-Jack Track East assemblage of 68% Primary Ilmenite, 14% Secondary Ilmenite, 4.5% Rutile, 10% Zircon, and 0.8% Monazite, for a 97% VHM content
- Updated Mineral Resource Estimate and Mineral Assemblages to be incorporated in Governor Broome Project Scoping Study
Astute Executive Chairman, Tony Leibowitz, said:
“The completion of this Resource upgrade marks another key step forward in our value-realisation strategy for Governor Broome. Successful in-fill drilling programs completed earlier this year have resulted in a substantial uplift of the higher confidence Indicated and Measured categories. This means these Resources can be included in the upcoming Scoping Study and will ultimately be available for conversion to Ore Reserves. With this key resource upgrade now finalized, the data will be handed over to our consultants for inclusion in the Scoping Study – which remains on track for completion in Q1 2024.”
Background
The 100%-owned Governor Broome Heavy Mineral Sands Project is located in the mineral sands-rich coastal areas of the South West of WA. The Project is, by sealed road, located about 95km south of Busselton, 105km south of Iluka’s processing plant at Capel, and 135km from Bunbury Port and from Picton, where Doral Australia has a heavy mineral separation plant. The area is well serviced by electrical infrastructure with a 132kV line located just 5km to the north and a three-phase power line passing through the Project.
Resource Development
The Governor Broome Project has been systematically de-risked by Astute over a number of years. Recent work includes the successful separation of marketable zircon, ilmenite, zircon and monazite products from bulk sample testwork for the Jack Track (eastern) part of the Project1. This updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) has resulted in a substantial 18% upgrade in higher-confidence Measured and Indicated resources from a previous 79Mt of Indicated Resources to 28.4Mt of Measured and 65Mt of Indicated Resources. This update in Mineral Resources incorporates the results of Astute’s 502-hole air- core drilling programme that was carried out earlier this year, designed specifically to upgrade the category of Mineral Resources.
The upgraded resources are being included in the current Scoping Study, which is scheduled for completion in Q1 2024. The locations of the various Project deposits are shown on Figure 1, and a summary of the Project’s Mineral Resources is shown in Table 1. The deposits within R70/58, for which these revised resources are reported, are shown in Figure 2. Details of the various resources are given in Table 3.
Figure 1. Governor Broome Project tenements and Mineral Resources.
Figure 2. Resources within and adjacent to R70/58.
Table 1. Governor Broome Project Resources – at 2% HM lower block-cut-off grade2
Note that the above figures have been appropriately rounded. The Fouracres Resources estimated at a 3% Heavy Mineral (HM) lower block-cut-off grade Governor Broome and Jack Track Resources estimated at a 2% HM lower block-cut-off grade
Geology and Mineralisation
The Governor Broome Project mineralisation is hosted in unconsolidated beach sands occurring on the Scott River Coastal Plain. The geological character of the mineralisation is like that of other heavy mineral deposits occurring along the Swan Coastal Plain, which have a long history of mining and processing. The mineralisation is hosted in beach placer facies sediments of the Pleistocene aged Barlee Shore-line on the southward facing Scott Coastal Plain.
The host unit to the Jack Track Deposit mineralisation, and that of the other deposits in the eastern section of R70/58, is the Warren Sands, which do not contain significant clay.
A sub-surface Bunbury Basalt headland is present to the west of the Jack Track Deposit (see Figures 1 and 2). The characteristics of both the Warren Sands-hosted mineralisation and of the underlying Beenup Beds, are markedly different on either side of the headland. To its east, both the Warren Sands and the immediately unconformably underlying Beenup Beds of the Cretaceous Warnbro Group are very fine grained, as are the heavy minerals.
To the west the grain sizes are larger, with most of the mineralisation within R70/58 also being within the Warren Sands, but its lower portions are hosted within the Beenup Beds. The Beenup Beds sediments are of two main facies in the area: clayey sands and organic clays. The clayey sands contain medium- to coarse-grained, angular to sub-angular, unconsolidated quartz and minor feldspar grains. The clay content, which is variable, tends to increase downward. Generally, it contains between 1% and 8% of valuable HM. Common accessory minerals are garnet, pyrite, and fine coal fragments.
The mineralisation that has been reported as Mineral Resources is based upon a minimum heavy mineral content of 2% over a thickness of 2m and a maximum Slimes content of 20% in any one intersection.
Exploration
The Jack Track Tenement, R70/58, has been explored with air-core drilling by Metal Sands in 2007, Astro in 2012, by Iluka in 2015, and by Astro in 2022 and 2023. Those holes within R70/58, or marginal to it and within the vicinity of the modelled mineralisation, are summarised in Table 1. The holes used in these revised Jack Track Deposit resource estimations are listed in Appendix 2.
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EIS Grant for Minnie Springs Copper Porphyry Drilling
- Augustus Minerals has been granted a co-funded drilling grant of up to $110,000 for 2 x 700m deep diamond drill holes under the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for the Minnie Springs prospect.
- The deeper diamond drill program is designed to test and to provide a 550m deep, 1km wide geological/geochemical/structural cross-section through the large 3km long by 1km wide copper moly porphyry system, linking the Mo mineralised leucogranite to the extensive Cu in soil anomaly to the northeast.
- Previous RC drilling at Minnie Springs intersected mineralisation, geology and alteration halo consistent with the zoning of a large porphyry copper / moly system.
Andrew Ford, GM Exploration
“The Company is pleased to receive an EIS grant to complete deeper drilling at the Minnie Springs Copper Molybdenum Project. The resultant data will enable mapping of the lithology and alteration to a depth of 550m and potentially intersect, or provide vectors to, higher grade Mo-Cu mineralisation using a Mo-Cu porphyry geological model”.
Minnie Springs
Minnie Springs hosts porphyry related copper molybdenum mineralisation previously drilled and defined by Catalyst Metals. A molybdenum Exploration target has been defined for the historicdrillingareacomprisedofbetween12-84Mtasoutlinedbelow (Table 1 and Figure 1, 2.)1.
Table 1. Exploration target size estimate for Minnie Springs Molybdenum depositNote: Based on ~300 ppm cut-off at 100% recovery.
The potential quantity and grade of the exploration target is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resources, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource.
The planned diamond drilling will complement the recently completed 3,200m RC drilling program that infilled around hole MSRC012 (18m @ 0.37% Cu and 9.7 g/t Ag from 94m downhole, and 16m @ 0.38% Cu and 19.4g/t Ag from 121m downhole2) and tested the northern half of the 2km long copper-in soil anomaly. Assays from this program are expected to become available over the next month.
The limited exploration in the region, highlighted by 95% of the Ti-Tree project having no previous exploration, demonstrates the prospectivity of this underexplored mineral province.
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Quarterly Activity Report 31 March 2024
Figure 1. Fiery Creek Copper Prospect/Yataga Granodiorite summarizing rock (brown diamonds) and termite mound sample results (black crosses)
Continuing with its primary exploration focus on the Georgetown project in the latter half of 2023, EMU received assay results during the quarter from its second, in field reconnaissance work. The geochemical sampling programme covered the Fiery Creek high grade copper vein swarm and the Snake Creek prospects with significant element results returned from the Fiery Creek Copper (elevated Cu-Au-Ag-Bi-In-Pb-Sb-Te) and Snake Creek (elevated Pb-Ag-Au-Sb).
Whilst the survey was cut short due to inclement weather, EMU was encouraged by the significant success reflected in the assays results. The results from mineralogical studies confirmed EMU’s interpretation of an indicative, scale Copper-Porphyry system at the Fiery Creek prospect and was a highlight of the survey with new information building on the scale and potential of the prospect1.
Assay results returned included:
- Fiery Creek rock assay results up to 23.5% Cu, 0.27ppm Au, 460ppm Ag, 1.9% Bi, 89ppm In, 2.7% Pb, 667ppm Sb, 1470ppm Zn2.
- evidence of strong potential for the presence of critical and strategic minerals (Cu, Bi, In), with precious and base metals.
- evidence of alteration mineralogy, mineralisation geochemistry and areal extent of the Fiery Creek quartz-Cu-Bi vein swarm strongly suggesting a previously unrecognised subjacent porphyry Cu-Mo system.
- Yataga Granitoid Complex termite mound and coincident rock chip sampling returned several anomalous polymetallic zones for follow up.
- Snake Creek Prospect assays returned 0.20ppm Au, 390ppm Ag, 22.4% Pb, 464ppm Sb1.
Significant results were returned from the Fiery Creek Copper prospect with elevated Cu-Au- Ag-Bi-In-Pb-Sb-Te and from the Snake Creek prospect with elevated Pb-Ag-Au-Sb.
The elevated pathfinder element results and a macro-petrology assessment3 of rock samples completed by Mr Nigel Maund, Consulting Economic Geologist, from the previously unexplored Fiery Creek Prospect, point to the discovery of a porphyry copper system.
The sampling program assessed a number of high-priority prospects within the Georgetown Project tenements utilising termite mound and outcrop rock chip geochemistry. A total of 46 rock chip and 489 termite mound samples were collected across eight prospects.
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Basin Energy Mining Exploration Entity or Oil and Gas Exploration Entity Quarterly Cash Flow Report
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