Emu NL has wasted no time and hit the ground running across its recently acquired suite of gold and nickel projects in southern WA. The company has put its exploration team in play at the 8 Mile project near the Menzies gold mining centre north of Kalgoorlie, while it makes preparations to commence extensional drilling at the Gnow’s Nest high-grade gold deposit south of Yalgoo.
The company has also provided some clues into plans for developing an exploration program over its trio of wildcard nickel-copper projects in WA’s South West mineral terrane.
Ahead of that, the first cab off the rank for Emu has been a first-pass exploration program across its tenure at 8 Mile Dam. The project lies south-west of the million-ounce mining centre at Menzies in WA’s iconic Eastern Goldfields, around 120km north of Kalgoorlie.
The company’s recent pegging of this project underscores its keen appetite for prospective real-estate with a posse of gold explorers currently bringing the historical mining area back into the spotlight. Most recently, Resources and Energy Group put out a bevy of high-grade gold results from its Gigante Grande prospect, east of town that sent the market into a frenzy and its share price spiralling higher, more than tripling in a matter of days.
Emu’s tenure at Menzies covers nearly 80 square kilometres of prospective stratigraphy immediately to the west of the Ardea Resources’ Highway nickel deposit. The company’s initial work program has focused on gaining an understanding of the geological environment underlying the project area in addition to confirming previous exploration activities, including locating the collars and drill spoil from historic drilling.
This on-ground reconnaissance has revealed the presence of previously unrecognised mafic and ultramafic stratigraphy, enhancing the overall prospectivity of the project and highlighting its potential to host both gold and nickel mineralisation. Emu is now planning a program of rock chip and soil sampling across the 8 Mile project area to begin geochemical mapping of the underlying stratigraphy and to assist in identifying targets for future drill testing.
Further west, at the company’s resurgent Gnow Nest gold deposit, the company is in the final stages of negotiations with its drilling contractor and looking to kick off an accelerated program of resource and extensional drilling in mid-December 2020. The Gnow Nest project lies south of the Yalgoo mining centre, around 400km north of Perth, and is surrounded by several operational gold mines, including the Silver Lake Deflector operations, just 50km to the west and Adaman Resources Kirkalocka mine, 90km to the east.
The Gnows Nest drilling program is being designed to test the high-grade extensions of the shallow deposit, which recent modelling indicating that the gold-bearing lodes remain open along strike and at depth.
Interestingly, comparisons are already being drawn between Emu’s 113,400 tonne, 3.78 g/t gold resource at Gnow Nest and the high-grade Penny West discovery near Youanmi, which proved so highly successful for Spectrum Metals. However, the true nature of Gnow Nest will only likely be revealed after reverse circulation drilling commences later in the year.
The company’s South West nickel-copper projects at Sunfire, Viper and Graceland are presently the subjects of a detailed geological review. Emu has hinted that it is planning detailed geophysical surveys and auger geochemistry across these strategic projects, as it looks to join the hunt for the next ‘Julimar’ nickel-PGE discovery in this emerging nickel terrane.
Emu would seem to have its hands full as it launches into exploration across WA. However, with a suite of prospective nickel projects in the emergent South West mineral field and an evolving gold project surrounded by operating mills at Gnows Nest, Emu could be set to fly the coop as it commences drilling in the coming months.
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