Auric Mining Ltd (ASX:AWJ) says there’s growing interest in its portfolio of gold, rare earths and cobalt properties near Widgiemooltha-Higginsville in WA.
The explorer has provided an exploration update on reverse circulation (RC) endeavours at the Miitel South and Chalice West projects, where it’s on the hunt for precious and critical metals.
Drill bit spins at Miitel South …
Auric recently conducted just over 400 metres of RC drilling at Miitel South prospect, following on from an aircore program at Chalice West.
Work in February covered an initial three holes, although eight were planned to effectively target an emerging gold trend from the prospect’s north and south.
So far, work has focused on the trend’s northern portion, returning results like 2 metres at 2.84 g/t gold from 39 metres amid widespread quartz and disseminated pyrite.
While gold findings for the three holes are modest, Miitel’s mineralised trend has been defined for more than 500 metres, while drilling has intersected widespread sulphide mineralisation together with quartz veining.
These features provide ample justification to continue with the initial RC program, with special attention paid to accessing Miitel’s mineralised trend from the northern side.
Auric will opt for a truck-mounted RC rig to carry out future work — equipment that is better suited to the tight access and ground restrictions.
… and at Chalice West
Auric also says nickel, rare earths and cobalt findings are taking shape at its Chalice West Project.
The explorer recently embarked on a reverse circulation drill campaign at Chalice West, completing five holes to test below anomalous aircore results.
While the drill rig only returned weakly anomalous gold, it did uncover nickel, rare earths and cobalt intersections like:
- 6 metres at 0.35% nickel, including 1-metre at 0.44% nickel, 788 parts per million (ppm) cobalt and 7,366ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO); and
- 36 metres at 1,253ppm TREO from surface, with 20% comprised of more valuable magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO).
As it puts the pieces together, Auric believes that nickeliferous ultramafic rocks in the area could be the source for clay-hosted rare earth elements.
The company is in discussions with a respected geological consultancy to firm up a research partnership with fellow explorers, designed to characterise clay-hosted rare earth deposits in WA.
Developing the Chalice West story
Auric’s latest Chalice West program was executed in concert with exploration at the nearby Miitel South prospect.
The five-hole program followed up on some earlier aircore findings, which revealed anomalous gold up to 168 parts per billion and nickel readings up to 0.67%.
Follow-up holes were selectively assayed for a suite of elements including gold, nickel and rare earth elements.
Auric’s exploration focused on one particular drill traverse, separated from the nearest aircore traverses by 800 metres to the north and 1,400 metres to the south.
These are substantial distances in the context of the nearby Chalice gold deposit which had dimensions of only 45 metres by 170 metres in plan view.
What’s to come?
With the new assays at hand, Auric will continue to advance its exploration strategy over its four core projects.
These include the Chalice West, Jeffreys Find, Spargoville and Widgiemooltha gold assets — properties that remain central to Auric’s vision to explore for and develop gold and other mineral deposits in the Widgiemooltha-Norseman area.
Auric’s project portfolio.
Read more on Proactive Investors AU
