Aurum reveals base metal side of flagship gold project

After poring over historical data mineral explorer Aurum Resources has confirmed the company’s flagship Penny South gold project in WA’s Mid West is also prospective for nickel along with a potential side of silver and zinc.

Inspired by its recent investigation into past geochemical datasets and geological logs the company plans to quantitively assess the base metal potential of the project by re-analysing selective intervals from available drill holes that were only ever assayed for gold.

Aurum has a plentiful array of holes to choose from including from its ongoing gold exploration program and holes from ASX-listed Aldoro Resources efforts in 2020.

The results will be released as they become available and will also assist in shaping Aurum’s ongoing exploration program.

Until now, most of the exploration across the project has been gold-focused as the project lies under the shadow of two exceptionally high-grade gold deposits currently under development by ASX-listed Ramelius Resources.

Aurum’s ground is situated along the same shear structure hosting Ramelius’ high-grade historical Penny West open pit and the more recently discovered Penny North underground deposit.

The remnants of the Penny West deposit lie just 510m north of Aurum’s ground and during the 1990s the ground produced 85,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 21.8 g/t gold — an impressively high-grade for an open pit.

The Penny North underground deposit immediately north of Penny West hosts 270,000 ounces at a similarly high grade of 20 g/t.

In 2004 in the project’s south-east area, an air core hole intersected an 8m interval of nickel-bearing gossanous fragments running 0.44 per cent nickel from 32m downhole.

In the broader area, volcanic-hosted massive sulphide, or “VHMS” base mineralisation was also found to occur at neighbouring prospects Pincher Hill and Manindi.

At Pincher Hill, a short 13km to the north of Penny South historical records from BHP Billiton and Western Mining Corporation point to a large VHMS mineral system occurring over 5km of strike with the presence of zinc and silver.

At Manindi 16km to the north-west lies ASX-listed Metals Australia’s VHMS resource of 1.06 million tonnes at 6.52 per cent zinc, 0.26 per cent copper and 3.19 g/t silver.

On Aurum’s north-east flank — 31km away — lies Empire Resources’ Just Deserts polymetallic VHMS deposit hosting a resource of 2.52 million tonnes at 1.31 per cent copper, 0.49 g/t gold and 1.76 g/t silver.

Given the strong show of base metals in the surrounding area and the world’s growing appetite for base metals, it will be interesting to see what Aurum’s re-assay campaign reveals.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au