ASX-listed explorer Oar Resources will immediately get stuck into groundwork for a maiden drilling campaign later this year at its Crown PGE-nickel-copper prospect near Chalice Mining’s celebrated Julimar discovery in Western Australia after securing an exploration licence. Initial reconnaissance works are planned to verify 20 identified targets at Crown, only about 9km west of Julimar.
The 93 sq.km Crown tenement lies about 60km north-east of Perth on the western edge of the mineral-rich Yilgarn Craton.
Oar has identified multiple magnetic structures interpreted to be prospective for nickel-copper-precious-group-element and gold mineralisation. Geophysical trends at Crown are believed to represent rock sequences similar to Chalice’s adjacent discovery.
In March 2020 Chalice’s discovery hole returned 19m at 2.6 per cent nickel, 1 per cent copper, 8.4 grams per tonne palladium and 1.1 g/t platinum from 48m and the company’s share price has soared from under 20c before discovery to around $8.
Other hits from a suite of stellar results reported by Chalice include 50m at 1.8 g/t palladium, 0.5 g/t platinum, 0.9 g/t gold, 0.2 per cent nickel and 1.1 per cent copper, in addition to 39m at 3.8 g/t palladium, 0.6 g/t platinum, 0.3 per cent nickel and 0.2 per cent copper.
Geological and structural interpretation of Crown has ranked four targets as high priorities for follow-up work among the 20 identified so far.
Oar intends to start land access negotiations immediately ahead of reconnaissance exploration.
Mapping and rock chip sampling to verify targets and then systematic geochemical sampling will follow.
Oar’s General Manager of Geology, Tony Greenaway says the company is looking forward to getting boots on the ground at Crown.
He says: “We are very pleased to have now received the eagerly anticipated notification of grant for our Crown project tenement. With this now finalised, we can meaningfully engage with our landholders in the area to secure land access agreements enabling the commencement of our initial low impact on-ground exploration.”
Crown is an area that has had “little to no previous exploration and which we believe has significant prospectivity for the potential discovery of gold and other mineralisation”.
Oar is well funded for the proposed exploration program following a recent $2.3m share placement.
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By Matt Birney
