West Perth-based explorer Aurum Resources is about to kick off a ground induced polarisation, or “IP” geophysical survey at its flagship Penny South project as it seeks out nickel and copper mineralisation.
Penny South is located in the prospective east Murchison region in WA within the rich Youanmi gold mining district. So far exploration attention has centred on its potential for gold mineralisation with the tenement adjacent to known gold deposits, but that is all about to change.
Last year, for instance, Aurum completed an 18-hole 5000m drill program at Penny South – an area which has experienced little historical drilling despite recording some solid gold hits in years previous, including 2 metres grading a stellar 33.98 grams per tonne gold, 6m running 1.27 g/t gold and 5m going 1.11 g/t gold.
Penny South sits close to both Penny West, only 500m to the north and Penny North that Ramelius Resources bought for hundreds of millions of dollars in both cash and stock. The Penny North-Penny West mine is now in production and Penny North itself is deemed to have a total ore reserve of 490,000 tonnes going a very handy 15 grams per tonne gold for 230,000 ounces of gold. Aurum believes Penny South has an analogous structural setting to Penny North and anomalous gold intersections.
However, minor nickel-bearing gossanous fragments were also found at Penny South in a hole drilled back in 2004, returning 8m going 0.44 per cent nickel from 32m.
Specifically, the forthcoming IP survey’s main target is the potential for nickel-copper in the ultramafic schist units that run north-south through the block and which Aurum believes are probably more extensive, given the historic nickel intersection plots within the mapped granitic basement.
The IP gradient array survey will be run over a 5.2 square kilometre block covering the historical anomalous nickel strike and the majority of the recent drilling. It is scheduled to start the first week of March with 100m east-west lines and should take two weeks to complete. Results are expected to be available shortly afterwards.
The company has also given an update on progress at its other project, Ryan’s Find, which lies northeast of Koolyanobbing in another gold-bearing region in the Watts Hill greenstone belt between Coolgardie and Southern Cross. The area boasts a smattering of historic gold mines and gold workings, including the historical Aurumin Mt Dimer gold mine in addition to 50km of relatively under-explored strike.
Aurum says it is still waiting for confirmation of a start date for a planned heritage survey by Terra Rossa. Terra Rossa is the sole heritage clearance company contracted to the Marlinyu Ghoorlie Native Title claimant group.
Aurum hopes the heritage clearance program will be completed before the end of a March when an air-core drill rig is booked.
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By Matt Birney
