Hammer Metals’ impressive run of exploration results has continued with a narrow but high grade intercept of more than one ounce to the tonne Gold at its emerging Kalman West prospect in Queensland.
Kalman West is just one kilometre west of Hammer’s flagship Kalman copper-gold-molybdenum-rhenium deposit, about 50 km southeast of Mt Isa. The Kalman prospect boasts an estimated 20 million tonnes at 1.8% copper equivalent and remains open along strike and down plunge.
At Kalman West, a VTEM helicopter-borne magnetic survey outlined a strong anomaly in late 2016, which became even more interesting earlier this year when soil and rock chip sampling identified impressive copper-gold and lead-zinc anomalies as well as a graphite horizon that assayed up to 9.92% total graphitic carbon.
In an exploration update released to the ASX last week, Hammer reported it had found a new gold zone with hits from both of the first two holes of an RC drill program. The first hole intercepted one metre at 36.9 g/t gold from a depth of 101 metres and the second intersected one metre at 3.93 g/t gold from just 13 metres down hole.
The company said it was “highly encouraged” by the results at Kalman West, where there is a gold soil anomaly extending over several hundred metres and there has been little previous drilling. Management are confident of hitting additional gold mineralisation, which appears to be associated with quartz veining near a contact between a graphitic schist and zones of red rock alteration. Follow up drilling is now a priority.
Hammer also reported encouraging results from a drill program underway at the Revenue copper-gold prospect, 30 km southwest of Kalman.
The first hole in the program was drilled at the Lucky Revenue prospect and struck 6 metres at 1.52% copper and 1.0 g/t gold from 48 metres. This interval included one metre at 4.42% copper and 4.04 g/t gold from 51 metres and one metre at 2.68% Copper, 0.7 g/t gold, 0.15% Molybdenum and 1.6 g/t Rhenium from 52 metres.
Hammer said the presence of molybendite-rhenium mineralisation had not previously been recognised, which is why earlier drill testing had been not be assayed for these elements.
The second hole was abandoned before reaching its target depth after veering away from its intended trajectory.
Revenue is adjacent to a similar granite body that is thought to have driven mineralisation at a number of other Hammer deposits and prospects in the region, including the Overlander Copper-Cobalt resource and the Andy’s Hill and Scalper IOCG targets.
The latest exploration results follow a string of successes by Hammer over the past year that include some solid deal activity.
These deals have allowed the company to extend its footprint in the Mt Isa district at bargain prices.
By Matt Birney
