Catalina Resources (ASX:CTN) is finalising heritage survey, clearance, and Program of Work (PoW) approvals for an early-2024 drilling program at its Laverton Project in Western Australia.
The drilling is currently slated for Q1 2024 to test recently identified gold, nickel, and rare earth element (REE) targets in the project area.
This comes after the company announced it had been granted exploration licences E38/3697 and E38/3698, which cover a 45km-square area and form part of the project.
Catalina says previous wide-spaced traverses of shallow drilling intersected gold mineralisation along the Barnicoat Shear Zone within the project. The proposed drill program will infill the coverage along this prospective mineralised trend.
Geophysical modelling undertaken by Southern Geoscience has revealed several other ultramafic units within Catalina’s tenement.
Catalina says there has been no follow-up exploration of the sulphide target, and the potential for critical minerals within the laterite nickel mineralisation, particularly scandium, has not been tested.
E38/3697 is the largest tenement in a group of 7 tenements that form the project. The tenement has been granted following ‘prolonged’ negotiations to acquire access agreements with neighbouring parties that hold overlapping miscellaneous licences.
The Laverton Gold Province hosts several ‘world-class’ deposits of gold, nickel, and REEs, according to Catalina.
Catalina Resources is an Australian diversified mineral explorer and mine developer focused on the exploration of prospective gold, base metal, lithium, and iron ore projects.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $3.344 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Catalina Resources
