Neometals (ASX:NMT) will commence drilling tomorrow 18 July at its Barrambie Gold Project in Western Australia, targeting copper extensions at Rinaldi and gold depth extensions at Ironclad.
The company plans eight holes totalling 1,150m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling during July across both targets at the 100%-owned project.
Three RC holes for approximately 410m will test a strong coincident chargeability and resistivity response 700m northeast of the historic Rinaldi copper workings.
Drilling will follow up significant intercepts from phase one drilling, including 7m at 1.72% copper (Cu) and 25.9 grams per tonne silver (Ag) from 82m; and 5m at 1.26% Cu and 20.8g/t Ag from 75m.
The Rinaldi copper target sits within the same stratigraphic host and directly along strike from Solstice Minerals’ (ASX:SLS) Nanadie Copper Project in the Barrambie Greenstone Belt.
Historic production at Rinaldi totalled 138 tonnes at 9.8% Cu.
Five holes totalling 740m will test interpreted extensions of ‘higher-grade’ mineralisation plunging north below the existing mineral resource estimate (MRE) at Ironclad. The Ironclad gold deposit hosts an indicated and inferred MRE of approximately 15,000oz.
Building the Barrambie pathway
A recent Scoping Study outlined potential to produce 10,000–11,000oz gold from the planned Ironclad open-pit development.
Neometals is progressing Ironclad towards commercial gold production in partnership with mining services provider BML Ventures.
“We are excited to resume drilling at Barrambie to test our first co-incident geophysical anomaly as well as extensions to the Rinaldi copper mineralisation, in addition to extensions to the existing Ironclad gold [MRE],” Managing Director Chris Reed says.
“Ironclad pre-production activities are continuing to progress, and we look forward to updating shareholders as we move towards a final investment decision.”
NMT is completing key approvals and permitting processes for open pit development at Ironclad, including signing of the native title agreement and state deed planned for September.
BML Ventures will then fund and execute grade control RC drilling for the starter pit.
Results from the copper drilling will inform the next phase of drilling at Rinaldi and contribute to the broader copper exploration strategy at Barrambie.
Neometals is advancing the Barrambie Project in Western Australia, which hosts one of the world’s ‘highest-grade’ titanium deposits and contains approximately 40km of strike in the Barrambie Greenstone Belt.
Write to JC Villarba at Mining.com.au
Images: Neometals
