Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits looks at notable drill intercepts recently reported to the ASX. Caprice Resources’ Island gold project south of Cue in Western Australia hit 11 metres grading 17.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 9m at 21g/t gold from 170m.
Other interesting drill hits were reported at Stavely Minerals’ Fairview prospect in Victoria, while Patriot Battery Metals made a big caesium discovery in Quebec, Canada.
Caprice Resources (ASX: CRS)
Project: Island gold project, WA’s Mid West region
Hit: 11m at 17.3g/t gold, including 9m at 21g/t from 170m
Caprice Resources struck gold with its standout 11m at 17.3g/t gold intercept, including 9m at 21g/t from 170m downhole at the company’s Vadrian’s target within its Island gold project in the Meekatharra–Cue–Mt Magnet greenstone belt in WA’s Murchison region.
The high-grade hit from the company’s first batch of samples from its phase three reverse circulation (RC) drilling program confirms the Evening Star lode as a significant discovery, doubling its strike length to 350m and extending mineralisation at depth, where it remains open.
Supporting this top result, additional high-grade gold intercepts from the final batch of phase three assays at Vadrian’s include 9m at 14.8g/t from 154m, including 1m at 33.1g/t from 159m; 5m at 18.3g/t from 180m, including 1m at 62.6g/t; and 10m at 10.9g/t from 123m, including 1m at 63.9g/t.
Earlier phase three gold results also romped home with 10m at 11.7g/t from 175m, including 8m assaying 14.4g/t from 176m downhole and 9m at 8.3g/t from 94m.
Further potential is shown at the company’s New Orient prospect, 1 kilometre south, in a notable intercept of 21m at 1.3g/t from 29m, including 2m going 9.2g/t gold from 46m. The mineralisation remains open to the north and down dip.
Caprice holds more than 1800 square kilometres of prospective WA ground, with 240 square kilometres across its Murchison gold projects, including the Island, New Orient and Cuddingwarra.
Island spans a 5km-long, 700m–1000m-wide corridor, which hosts gold in units of banded iron formation up to 30m thick, a key host rock in the Murchison Goldfields.
High-grade gold is associated with north-northwest / south-southeast trending en echelon vein sets and major crosscutting structures, mirroring the region’s more-than-15-million-ounce total gold endowment in deposits.
The company has also discovered two new mineralised zones - West Star, with 2m at 3.2g/t gold from 132m and at Condenser, with 2m at 1.1g/t from 90m which reinforce the potential for other stacked lodes across the corridor.
Drilling to date has been limited to 170m below surface, leaving significant depth potential unexplored.
The company’s phase three drilling program comprised 43 RC holes for 7024m and was completed in June. All assays have been received and the results confirm increasing gold grades at depth, satisfyingly validating the geological model.
Additionally, laboratory analysis confirms free gold in the intercepts, which will facilitate processing and refining.
Island’s structural and geological setting, with banded iron formation units and crosscutting structures, is in keeping with other high-grade deposits in the Murchison.
Caprice is steadily moving towards a maiden mineral resource estimate with a fully funded phase four program of 20,000m of air core, RC and diamond drilling planned for September. The company anticipates the work will extend high-grade zones and provide structural data.
An air core program slated for the last quarter of the year will target an undrilled 1000m-long banded iron formation trending beneath Lake Austin’s sediment cover, between New Orient and Vadrian’s, as well as high-titanium basalt stratigraphy on Island’s western edge, which is similar to the Break of Day deposits.
The Island project contains many of the historic mines in the Lake Austin gold mining centre and comprises two granted mining leases and one exploration licence. It sits between Ramelius Resources and Westgold Resources’ processing infrastructure in the heart of the Murchison gold district.
Meanwhile, Caprice’s 1500-square-kilometre West Arunta project, targeting gold, copper and niobium/rare earths, is capitalising on its multiple high-priority targets. These include analogues of WA1’s Luni discovery and its 200Mt at 1 per cent niobium pentoxide mineral resource.
With high-grade hits at Vadrian’s, new zones at West Star and Condenser, and a strategic mix of RC, diamond and air core drilling planned, Caprice is well-positioned to unlock further value at its Island project, potentially defining a significant gold resource in the Murchison.
Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY)
Project: Fairview North and South prospects in the Stavely copper-gold project, Western Victoria
Hit: 1m at 49.2g/t gold from 10m
Stavely Minerals has uncovered high-grade gold at its Stavely copper-gold project in western Victoria, with significant results from RC drilling at its Fairview North and South prospects.
The standout assay from Fairview South revealed 1m at 49.2g/t gold from 10m within a broader 40m at 1.96g/t from surface, including 17m at 4.18g/t from 9m and 9m at 7.15g/t from 9m.
Other Fairview South results include 42m at 1.14g/t from a previous RC hole, with 9m at 3g/t, and an air core hole assaying 29m at 1.42g/t from surface.
Geological mapping and rock-chip sampling at Fairview South extended the mineralised zone 600m south, with high-grade assays from brecciated, quartz-veined and gossanous samples yielding up to 25.6g/t, 8.79g/t, and 4.49g/t gold.
Eight float samples showed anomalous gold above 0.1g/t, including 0.41g/t in massive gossan with quartz crystals.
The prospect features intermediate and felsic intrusive dykes near a gravity low tied to rhyolite intrusions at the intersection of a north-south gold trend and a west-northwest structure.
At Fairview North, 4.3km north, RC drilling yielded 59m at 1.31g/t from surface, including 27m at 2.33g/t with 3m at 10.81g/t from 19m, alongside 42m at 1.57g/t from 23m, including 8m at 4.76g/t, and 29m at 0.96g/t from surface, with 6m at 3.46g/t gold.
Fairview North’s RC drilling confirmed well-developed, shallow, potentially heap-leachable gold mineralisation. Bottle-roll cyanide leach tests from 2017 indicate 72.6 per cent to 98.4 per cent gold recovery after 120 hours, and column leach tests showing 81.9 per cent to 95.8 per cent recovery.
The mineralisation aligns within a northwest-trending corridor with three sinusoidal structural zones, guiding further RC drilling to expand the footprint.
The Fairview prospects suggest a significant mineralised structure potentially spans 10km.
Stavely’s forward program includes additional RC drilling to test structural geometries and composite metallurgical testwork to assess low-cost heap leach recovery options.
The company’s high-grade gold hits and promising leach test results at both of its Fairview prospects signal a growing mineralised system, with ongoing drilling poised to unlock further potential in this emerging gold-copper play.
Pollucite mineralisation in a high-grade caesium drill intersection at about 64.5m depth in drill hole CV23-271 at the Rigel Zone in the CV13 Pegmatite. Interval grades assayed 1 metre at 22.69 per cent caesium oxide from 64m deep, with XRD reporting a 58 per cent pollucite content over the interval. Credit: File.
Patriot Battery Minerals (ASX: PMT)
Project: Shaakichiuwaanaan, Eeyou Istchee James Bay, Quebec, Canada.
Hits: 156.9m at 2.12 per cent lithium oxide; 1.1m at 26.61 per cent caesium oxide
Patriot Battery Metals has confirmed the world’s largest pollucite-hosted caesium resource at its Shaakichiuwaanaan project in Quebec’s Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, complementing its globally significant lithium and tantalum pegmatites.
The project, featuring CV5 and CV13 pegmatites, ranks as the largest lithium resource in the Americas and a top-tier critical minerals hub.
The standout lithium intercept is 156.9m at 2.12 per cent lithium oxide, including 25m at 5.04 per cent lithium oxide and 5m at 6.36 per cent lithium oxide from the CV5 pegmatite.
CV5 hosts the bulk of the project’s lithium, with an indicated resource of 108 million tonnes at 1.40 per cent lithium oxide and 166 parts per million (ppm) tantalum pentoxide, plus an inferred 33.4Mt at 1.33 per cent lithium oxide and 155ppm tantalum pentoxide.
The top tantalum pentoxide intercept is 5.4m at 356ppm within 31.6m at 0.95 per cent lithium oxide.
The caesium discovery shines in the Rigel and Vega zones in the CV13 pegmatite. The top caesium intercept is 1.1m at 26.61 per cent caesium oxide from the Rigel zone, with another notable hit of 5m at 13.2 per cent caesium oxide, including 2m at 22.9 per cent caesium oxide.
CV13’s resource includes Rigel’s indicated 163,000t at 10.25 per cent caesium oxide and 1.78 per cent lithium oxide, and Vega’s indicated 530,000t at 2.61 per cent caesium oxide and 2.23 per cent lithium oxide.
It has an inferred 1,698,000t at 2.40 per cent caesium oxide and 1.81 per cent lithium oxide for a total 30,599t indicated and 40,800t inferred caesium oxide.
Caesium is exclusive to CV13, with no significant occurrences in CV5.
Caesium is supply constrained and is used in drilling fluids, optical glass and atomic clocks for internet and mobile networks. Historically, only a few mines have produced caesium, often as a lithium by-product, including Sinomine’s Tanco mine in Canada, the Bikita mine in Zimbabwe and Pioneer Resources’ Sinclair mine in the WA Goldfields.
Power Metals’ Case Lake project in Ontario recently reported a 13,000t inferred resource at 2.4 per cent caesium oxide, but Shaakichiuwaanaan’s scale – with 30,599t indicated and 40,800t inferred caesium oxide - positions it as the global leader.
The project’s lithium resource, the eighth largest globally, as well as a potential further tantalum resource enhance its strategic value.
Patriot is advancing a scoping metallurgical program using X-ray ore sorting to optimise pollucite recovery from the Vega zone drill core, alongside lithium and tantalum co-recovery.
Further drilling aims to upgrade inferred resources and support geo-mechanical studies and the company is planning a lithium-focused feasibility study this quarter.
Shaakichiuwaanaan’s world-class caesium, lithium and tantalum resources position Patriot as a key player in North American and European critical mineral supply chains, with ongoing work set to unlock its multi-commodity potential.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
