Metals Australia (ASX:MLS) has launched a series of new drilling and exploration programs across three project areas in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The exploration programs will be testing critical minerals and gold targets that are all located along strike from major mineral deposits.
Initial drilling at the Tennant Creek Project in the Northern Territory will explore the untested key copper-gold target corridor called Warrego East.
Metals Australia, which has a market capitalisation of $13.44 million, says historically, the target has produced 25 million tonnes @ 6.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 2.8% copper.
Aircore drilling at the Warrambie Project in the northwest Pilbara region of Western Australia will test the Warrambie lithium-pegmatite targets. Drilling is slated to begin during the second half of this year.
Deeper reverse circulation drilling or diamond drilling will be undertaken, depending on results, to test the entire thickness of the identified pegmatite zone.
The company says interpretation of regional magnetics over Warrambie has uncovered a series of northeast-trending fault structures, which intersect a complex of magnetic mafic intrusive rocks.
Metals Australia adds this is an analogous geological setting to the neighbouring Andover lithium pegmatite cluster, which is associated with a 5km wide, northeast trending structural corridor in the mafic intrusive rocks.
Other targets at Warrambie include electromagnetic anomalies associated with mafic intrusives indicated by gravity imagery, which are prospective for intrusive related nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide deposits.
At the Big Bell North tenements in the Murchison Gold Province of Western Australia, an aerial magnetics survey over gold target areas within the key tenements has begun.
The magnetics aim to define the buried greenstone and splay-fault structures and allow Metals Australia to plan aircore drilling to bedrock to test these targets for buried gold deposits.
CEO Paul Ferguson says these exploration programs are “important steps” in advancing all of the projects.
“High-quality drilling targets have been identified by our geological team at the Tennant Creek Project, east of the high-grade Warrego copper-gold mine, and at our Warrambie Project in the northwest Pilbara, which is only 10km east of the major Andover lithium discovery,” he says.
“With exploration programs across five key projects in Australia and Canada, the second half of 2024 will be an extremely exciting period for the company as we look to unlock the value of our portfolio.”
Metals Australia is focused on making critical minerals and metals discoveries within its portfolio of advanced exploration and pre-development projects in the highly endowed and well-established mining jurisdictions of Québec, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Metals Australia
