Advanced battery materials developer, Australian Mines Limited (ASX: AUZ) has announced positive assay results from the first phase of its resource expansion drilling campaign at Flemington Project in New South Wales.
The company reported that high-grade cobalt and scandium intersections were returned from Flemington resource extension drilling.
Some of the significant intersections include 12 metres at 1,732ppm (0.17%) cobalt from 10 metres deep and 20 metres at 425ppm scandium from 8 metres deep.
AUZ noted that the early indications suggest the mineralised horizon continues to extend beyond the existing Flemington Mineral Resource.
The company said that further assays from recently completed resource expansion drilling are anticipated to become available throughout the coming month.
Flemington cobalt – scandium – nickel Project
AUZ’s 100%-owned Flemington Project is located in New South Wales, Australia. It is its second battery materials project after its flagship Sconi Nickel-Cobalt-Scandium Project in North Queensland.
Flemington’s Mineral Resource as announced on 31 October 2017 is: Measured 2.5Mt @ 0.103% Co & 403ppm Sc, Indicated 0.2Mt @ 0.076% Co & 408ppm Sc.
The company’s first phase of its resource expansion drilling campaign at Flemington is ongoing.
AUZ said that the first phase of resource expansion drilling campaign was designed to test the interpreted western continuation of the Flemington mineralisation and to enable the Company’s independent mining consultants to update the project’s current Mineral Resource Estimate at a future date.
Resource expansion drilling
The company reported that over 3,300 metres of air core drilling was completed at Flemington over a 16-day period in May 2019, comprising of a total of 197 holes.
To date, the Company has received assay results from 26 holes.
AUZ said that the initial results indicate that the mineralisation at Flemington may extend more than one kilometre beyond the boundary of the current Resource and also appears to remain open to the west, and potentially to the north, of the current drilling.
High-grade intersections
AUZ reported high-grade cobalt and scandium intersections from Flemington.
Some of the significant cobalt intersections include 12 metres at 1,732ppm (0.17%) cobalt from 10 metres deep; 10 metres at 1,600ppm (0.16%) cobalt from 4 metres deep; 5 metres at 1,383ppm (0.13%) cobalt from 13 metres deep; and 4 metres at 1,283ppm (0.12%) cobalt from 7 metres deep.
Some of the significant scandium intersections include 12 metres at 402ppm scandium from 9 metres deep; 20 metres at 425ppm scandium from 8 metres deep; 10 metres at 309ppm scandium from 12 metres deep; and 10 metres at 267ppm scandium from 1 metre deep.
What’s next?
AUZ reported that further assays results are anticipated to become available throughout the coming month.
The company said that follow-up large-scale expansion drilling campaign is currently being planned for later in the calendar year.
This is being planned to enable the Company to better determine the full extent of the mineralised envelope at Flemington and, in turn, maximise the Mineral Resource potential for the Project.
Australian Mines also noted that the recent drill program returned some anomalous copper results, with grades approaching 0.5%.
The company said that this would require further analysis by its geological team to understand its significance and the project’s potential to host copper mineralization.
Management comments
Australian Mines Managing Director, Benjamin Bell, said: “Following their highly successful exploration and resource expansion campaigns at Sconi over the past year, I am very pleased to have our exploration team on the ground at Flemington to complete the first phase of, what is slated to be, an extensive resource definition drilling program.
