Native Mineral Resources looks to have struck a chord at its Music Well prospect in WA, with the ASX-listed company’s recent exploration program delivering in spades. Samples from the new program showed visible gold which is always good cause for some in-field excitement and importantly, some assays weighed in at over 100 grams per tonne gold.
The company’s program at Music Well follows up on the high-grade results reported by previous explorers, which included a number of samples grading at over an ounce per tonne gold. Reconnaissance sampling by Native Minerals backed-up this earlier work, delivering assays of up to 34.8 g/t gold and greenlighting the larger systematic sampling program across the Music Well structures.
Native Mineral’s has now completed a broad scale sampling program over two priority targets, with a blend of rock chipping and bulk sampling outlining a bounty of gold mineralisation, including four samples which assayed at over half an ounce per tonne gold and one sample kicking as high as 100 g/t gold.
Sampling across the northern target known as Area 1, has outlined a south-west trending quartz reef system that comprises multiple veins which vary from a few centimetres to over a metre in width. These veins occupy an envelope which is up to 30 metres wide, according to the company. The structure at Area 1 extends over more than 275m of strike but is hidden by shallow sand and soil cover beyond the current sampling area. However, the host structure is interpreted to extended for more than 700m to the south-west of the discovery zone, representing an enticing target for future drill testing.
Native Mineral’s exploration across Area 1 has returned some intriguing results, with rock chips regularly assaying above 3 g/t gold. Of the thirteen 20 kilogram plus bulk samples taken, twelve returned anomalous gold results with higher grade samples also exhibiting visible, free-milling gold when subjected to simple gravity separation.
The southern target area, Area 2, is located around 2km south of Area 1 and is less mature than its northern neighbour in terms of overall exploration. However, the southern target has also delivered the goods, pushing out rock chips of up to 20.19 g/t gold and the highest-grade bulk sample tipped the scales at over 15.5 g/t gold whilst offering up an abundance of visible gold in gravity concentrate.
Native Mineral Resources Managing Director, Blake Cannavo said:“These initial sampling results from Music Well have exceeded our expectations, and indicate the strong potential for a much larger gold bearing structure to be hosted within the project area.”
“We put in place a very deliberate strategy to target high-grade, narrow vein mineralisation at Music Well, and from this initial work our team has been able to prove that multiple target veins contain high-grade gold, and that the gold is, at least in part, free milling and accessible using basic gravity-based extraction techniques alone. This outstanding result provides NMR with significant options moving forward.”
The company’s Music Well gold project is located 55 kilometres north of Leonora in the North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The project comprises two granted exploration licenses that cover around 270 square kilometres of the cratonic basement rock between the Leonora and Mertondale greenstone belts. It is prospective for various styles of gold mineralisation including structural and intrusive-hosted gold systems.
Native Minerals’ new discovery is conveniently surrounded by a host of operating or developing gold mines including the famed Gwalia mine to the south, the emergent King of Hills gold mine to the west and the Mertondale deposits to the south-east. Interestingly, the geology of the project shows strong similarities to Saracen’s high-grade 0.7-million-ounce Bundarra gold project, which is located just 4 kilometres to the west of Native Minerals’ western tenement boundary. It hosts a swathe of intrusive-related gold deposits within a 10km long shear zone which, like Music Well, are wholly hosted with the granitic basement rocks.
With an increasing number of significant gold discoveries in WA being hosted by granites including De Grey’s recent find at Hemi in the Pilbara and the revival of Red 5’s 6-million-ounce King of the Hills gold mine, there is a solid move on now for explorers to take a second look at granite hosted terranes that might be prospective for the elusive yellow metal.
With visible gold in samples and a host of potential toll milling options in the Leonora region, Native Minerals will likely now look to expedite its exploration and development program at Music Well as it looks to capitalise on its new discovery in the months ahead.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
