Warriedar Resources (ASX:WA8) sees “further promise” in the antimony potential of its Ricciardo deposit, part of the Golden Range Project in Western Australia, following an initial review.
According to the company, the review, which was conducted after historical assays returned up to 6.03% antimony, indicates the Ricciardo mineralisation has scale potential, rather than being limited discontinuous mineralisation.
The antimony mineralisation occurs from near surface and extends to a vertical depth of at least 250m.
Warriedar, which has a market capitalisation of $45.79 million, says further work is required to infill significant drill spacing between areas.
However, the initial review has highlighted that the deposit has potential to host contiguous antimony mineralisation of “significant thickness” for a 1km strike length from the Ardmore pit to the Silverstone pit.
CEO Amanda Buckingham says while the company is excited about Ricciardo’s opportunity, its main goal is growth-focused drilling at Golden Range.
“An exceptionally high-grade antimony interval, as well as a much wider intersection, are now able to be placed in greater context,” Buckingham says.
“This context is a broader volume of antimony, not yet well-defined but with existing drilling showing serious scale and grade potential.
“Importantly, the high-grade antimony appears relatively discrete from higher grade gold mineralisation, an excellent metallurgical outcome. While it remains early days, we are cautiously optimistic and have commenced initial metallurgical testing for potential processing and antimony recovery.”
Antimony is considered a critical mineral in Australia, Europe, Japan, and the US. It has a wide range of applications across various industries due to its unique properties, such as flame retardancy, alloying capability, and use in electronics and military.
According to the US Geological Survey, the global antimony mine production last year was 83,000 tonnes, with China producing more than 40,000 tonnes.
Warriedar adds that a recent geochemistry review of historical and assay data suggests that the antimony is independent from the gold mineralisation.
The Ricciardo gold system spans a strike length of 2.3km, with very limited drilling being conducted below 100m depth. The deposit has a resource estimate of 8.7 million tonnes at 1.7 grams per tonne gold for 476,000 ounces of gold.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Warriedar Resources
