Rock chips from the Tambourah tenement in Western Australia’s Pilbara region have returned gold grades of up to 11.9 g/t providing CuFe Ltd (ASX:CUF) with reason to further explore the gold potential.
Tambourah is in an area historically known for gold and historical drilling by Mount Newman Mining in the 1980s identified gold mineralisation, including an 18-metre intersection averaging 1.25 g/t gold.
CuFe plans to focus upcoming exploration on this prospective gold trend, with future work targeting the definition of quartz lodes along strike.
“A good target”
“Our recent review of our Tambourah ground shows potential for gold with recent high-grade rock chips and historical drilling highlighting that and giving us a good target to investigate further,” said CuFe executive director Mark Hancock Hancock.
The Tambourah work comes amid a flurry of exploration and development activity for CuFe across a number of its key assets, including North Dam, West Arunta and Tennant Creek.
High-impact greenfield opportunities
Hancock said: “In the last 18 months we have consciously repositioned our asset base to include a number of high-impact greenfield exploration opportunities.
“Like all greenfield exploration, there is an element of risk but the upside that success offers our shareholders justifies taking this risk.
“The first of these to be drilled was North Dam where we intercepted significant pegmatite interceptions and the assays showed the presence of lithium and rare earths, but in lower concentrations over shorter intercepts than we had hoped.
The company wrapped up an initial 18-hole reverse circulation (RC) drill program at North Dam, covering 2,068 metres to gain insight into the project’s subsurface geology.
The drill program intersected pegmatite systems and assays revealed some low lithium mineralisation, with levels reaching up to 0.15% lithium oxide (Li2O).
Rare earth concentrations
Additionally, rare earth element (REE) concentrations were detected, with one shallow drill intercept showing total rare earth oxide (TREO) at 1,045 ppm, likely from surface weathering processes.
“We are interpreting the results to further understand them and have a third-party expert engaged to assist in this, with the review to guide next steps in this region,” Hancock said.
CuFe has also finalised a land access agreement with the Ngururrpa Native Title Body for its West Arunta project, facilitating exploration of geophysical targets near Lycaon Resources’ Stansmore target.
Niobium on the horizon
At the project, CuFe identified a significant ovoid magnetic anomaly, the T1 target, with characteristics suggesting potential niobium-REE or iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation.
Fieldwork on these high-priority targets is scheduled following the wet season.
CuFe has started a re-evaluation of its Tennant Creek Orlando Resource with MEC Mining Consultants, with the aim of identifying copper and gold mineralisation extensions from existing open pits into historical underground areas.
The updated resource model, expected by mid-December, will support future development and valuation studies.
“We are investigating other opportunities in the region to supplement our position," Hancock said.
"In West Arunta, we will be watching the progress of the LYN drilling at Stanmore and are pleased to have made progress along the pathway of getting access to the ground to commence exploration next year.
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“At our more mature Tennant Creek project a JORC resource review is underway targeting the addition of valuable resources tonnes to the project, with a view to supporting development options that we are currently looking at in conjunction with our new alliance partners Emmerson Resources and Tennant Minerals,” he added.