Black Canyon (ASX:BCA) is planning a drilling program at the W2 prospect — part of its Wandanya Project in Western Australia — following the delivery of further ‘high-grade’ manganese rock chip samples.
The $9.23 million market capitalisation company says ahead of this first round drilling at W2, Black Canyon will integrate datasets to determine if induced polarisation (IP) is warranted along strike.
Black Canyon says 2 lines of a dipole-dipole IP survey have been completed over the mineralised outcrop and have generated a coincident surface and deeper anomaly to the east.
The company reports recent ‘high-grade’ samples were generated from a follow-up detailed sampling program over the Wandanya tenement and demonstrate manganese grades up to 58.5%.
Four samples taken between 80m and 100m apart also returned grades of up to 53.3%, 58.5%, and 57.8% manganese, respectively.
The company notes these results, in conjunction with previously reported ‘high-grade’ samples, confirm the main body of bedded to massive mineralisation at the W2 prospect is 300m long and 150m wide.
Further mineralisation has also been mapped and sampled to the north over a strike length of more than 1.7km.
Follow-up sampling was completed to verify the initial ‘high-grade’ samples and improve the geological understanding and mineralisation potential of the W2 prospect at Wandanya and targets located along strike to the north.
Black Canyon’s Executive Director Brendan Cummins says these results share similarities with results encountered across the Balfour Manganese Field and with the Woodie Woodie manganese mine.
“These rock chip sample results are very encouraging given the grade of the samples and similarities in geological setting to the Woodie Woodie manganese mine that has multiple orebodies ranging in size from 50,000t to 5Mt and an average deposit size of approximately 500,000t.
We see these potentially smaller tonnage, higher-grade manganese deposits as highly complementary to the manganese-enriched shale-hosted discoveries we recently announced across the Balfour Manganese Field.”
Black Canyon is a manganese explorer and developer with a consolidated ‘significant’ land holding totalling 2,400km-square in the underexplored Balfour Manganese Field and across the Oakover Basin in Western Australia.
The company’s tenements within this area include the Flanagan Bore, Oakover East and West, and Braeside projects.
Black Canyon had $1.872 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 September 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Black Canyon
