Impact Minerals has continued to build its portfolio of projects in Western Australia with its latest addition being an intriguing gold project to the east of the world-class St Ives gold mining centre near Kambalda. The Doonia project covers what appears to be a mafic intrusive with a similar geochemical and geophysical signature to the ground-breaking Hemi discovery in the Pilbara region.
Doonia comprises one exploration lease application covering more than 60 square kilometres, located 75km to the east of Kambalda in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Historical exploration includes surface geochemical sampling and geophysics which have defined a gold in soil anomaly over a bedrock magnetic high.
Impact Minerals Managing Director, Mike Jones said:
“Doonia is a highly prospective addition to our exploration portfolio and we acted very quickly when alerted to the opportunity. We now have an exploration project with excellent indications for the discovery of a significant gold deposit with a target that is already well defined, easily manageable and cheap to test.”
“The large surface geochemistry gold anomaly has been very poorly drilled, and we will endeavour to do that as quickly as practicable after our tenement is granted early in 2021.”
“The recent discovery at Hemi is a classic example of “you don’t find what you don’t look for”, where for decades it was considered that a deposit of that size and scale was unlikely to be found in the Pilbara Craton. “
Doonia boasts a comprehensive exploration database, with WMC having systematically soil sampled the tenement in 1999. This survey defined a coincident 2km long by 1km wide, multi-element geochemical anomaly in the central tenement area. Whilst the anomaly shows an elevated gold content, it also reveals enhanced levels of nickel, copper and zinc mineralisation, adding further weight to the interpretation of the geophysical data, which appears to show a mafic intrusive within the bedrock.
Wide-spaced, shallow aircore drilling has also been completed over the target, returning anomalous levels of gold mineralisation. However, the company has signalled that an evaluation of this program shows the target requires deeper infill and extensional drilling to properly test the anomaly.
Following the formal grant of the tenement at Doonia in the coming months, Impact will take an 80 per cent interest in the project, with applicant, Odette Resources owning the remaining 20 per cent and being free-carried up until a decision to mine. The company will also pay prospecting syndicate Milford Resources a finder’s fee of $3,750 and 353,829 shares in Impact for its assistance in the transaction.
The Doonia project has been acquired as part of Impact’s ongoing project generation program in WA, which in recent months, has dramatically increased the company’s holding in the COVID-free jurisdiction.
Impact has also been accumulating a holding in WA’s South-West Mineral Field, putting its foot on more than 2,000 square kilometres of ground in the emerging terrane. The holding is prospective for various styles of gold mineralisation and is also a hot spot for potential intrusive-related nickel mineralisation, following the discovery of the Julimar nickel-PGE prospect, east of Perth, earlier this year.
Further afield Impact continues full steam ahead in New South Wales, with drilling continuing over the company’s Broken Hill project following a short break due to unseasonably wet weather. The geological target Broken Hill is the nickel-PGE bearing Moorkai Dyke, which extends over more than 9km of strike and hosts a number of key targets. Prospects include the Red Hill discovery where drilling earlier this year intersected 29m at 7.6 g/t platinum and palladium with 2.3 per cent copper.
Drilling at Broken Hill is currently focused on the Plat Central and Little Broken Hill Gabbro targets, with initial geological logging showing promising indications of nickel-PGE mineralisation. Samples from the evolving program are currently being expedited through the lab with the company also suggesting it may extend the scope of drilling should sampling continue to bear fruit.
Further east, the Impact’s targets in the venerated Lachlan Fold Belt, or “LFB” are also taking shape, with work over the Apsley prospect outlining a substantial porphyry copper-gold target. The LFB hosts a number of world-class porphyry deposits, including the Cadia-Ridgeway complex and the recent discovery at Boda.
Impact’s work program at Apsley follows up from mapping and soil sampling which has outlined an extensive zone of copper-gold mineralisation, measuring more than 500m wide and extending over 2,000m of strike. Induced polarisation, or “IP”, was commissioned over the target however it was only recently completed due to the scope of the survey having to be extended on multiple occasions, which bodes well for the ongoing exploration program.
IP, or the geophysical survey, is used to detect the disseminated sulphide mineralisation associated with porphyry ore systems. Thus far the surveying at Apsley has been successfully lighting up targets, with the company now fast-tracking approvals for drilling, as it awaits the final results from the IP survey - Impact hopes to be on the ground with drill rods turning in early 2021.
Impact looks to have a full dance card heading into the new year, with a bevy of new projects in WA. Drilling appears to being coming up trumps at Broken Hill and there looms a potentially game-changing prospect outlined in the Lachlan Fold Belt. It is looking like a hectic lead up to the close of 2020 for the budding explorer and potentially a very merry Christmas.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
