Neometals (ASX:NMT) has completed a maiden assessment of the gold potential of the Barrambie Project in Western Australia, and says results have proven it is “not only one of the world’s highest-grade titanium deposits, but is also highly prospective for gold mineralisation.”
The project covers 705km2 and encompasses 40km of strike of the Barrambie Greenstone Belt — which has historically produced 27,000 ounces of gold at 27.8 grams per tonne (g/t). Despite this, minimal gold exploration has occurred at Barrambie since the 1970s.
The company has developed a new geological model for the broader Yilgarn greenstone belt which contains the Barrambie Greenstone Belt which is reflective of camp-scale gold prospectivity; that is, a multi-deposit portfolio of mineralisation of various dimensions and styles.
Neometals, which has a market capitalisation of $59.33 million, says the model is framed around well-defined structural corridors and stratigraphic controls.
The company adds the model is informed by substantial historical datasets, new structural interpretation of reprocessed geophysics, field observations, and recent sampling, which returned up to 44g/t gold.
Managing Director Chris Reed says the work in compiling, validating, and analysing historic exploration data has proven the company has underestimated the gold potential of the only remaining greenstone terrain in the Yilgarn with no exploration effort in the last 20 years.
“It presents a rare opportunity to uncover a substantial gold camp, and we will explore the most effective strategy and corporate structure to capitalise on the gold potential,” Reed says.
“We will continue with our divestment strategy in relation to the titanium and vanadium resources.”
Meanwhile, the historic dataset of over 1,500 drillholes includes several intersections, including 4m @ 6.1g/t gold; 6m @ 11.8g/t gold; and 8m @ 21.8g/t gold.
An exploration target has been calculated along the 40km strike of the Barrambie Greenstone Belt within Neometals’ tenure from between 8 million tonnes at 1.3g/t gold, and 10.5 million tonnes at 2.3g/t gold, for an implied 335,000 ounces to 775,000 ounces of gold.
Neometals says the potential quantity and grade of the exploration target is conceptual in nature and requires a systematic exploration effort to confirm and convert it to a mineral resource.
In the next term of the licence, the company will focus on confirming and extending the historic data. The activities will include twin-hole drilling to verify the location and tenor of gold identified in historic data and extending the surface geochemistry sampling to ensure key structural and lithological positions have appropriate coverage.
Neometals will also analyse gold and pathfinder elements associated with large-scale, orogenic gold mineralisation, and then conduct follow-up drill testing of priority targets.
The company’s decision to explore gold comes at a time where the precious metals’ spot price recently broke another record, touching over $2,600 per ounce on Friday last week.
According to Trading Economics, the gold price is currently sitting at US$2,620.7 per ounce.
Neometals is a critical minerals-focused company that facilitates sustainable critical material supply chains and reduces the environmental burden of traditional mining in the global transition to a circular economy.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Stock, Neometals
