Emu NL is stalking a gaggle of new targets at its Sunfire nickel-copper project near Bridgetown in WA. The project hosts a suite of mafic-ultramafic intrusions similar in nature to Chalice Mining’s heralded Julimar discovery. The Yornup Mill prospect already boasts an extensive, drill-ready nickel-copper anomaly that currently extends over more than 1,500 metres of strike.
The company’s Sunfire tenement application is currently moving through an expedited procedure process with the Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety and Emu says it expects the application to be granted in the third quarter of 2021.
The Sunfire project is located around 240km south of Perth in WA and sits between the South West towns of Bridgetown and Manjimup. It comprises of one exploration license application which covers three recognised base metal trends that extend across more than 5km of strike. The tenement overlies a mix of farmland and State Forest and the company is currently negotiating access with the relevant parties as it prepares to begin various surface surveys in the ramp up to drilling.
Intriguingly, Sunfire sits immediately adjacent to Venture Minerals’ Thor base metals discovery which is now the subject of a joint venture with Chalice Mining. Chalice is now earning into the Thor tenure as the wildly successful ASX-listed developer builds its position in the Bridgetown region, which includes additional tenure just north Manjimup.
However, it appears that Emu may be holding a blocking stake in the region with its ground position at Sunfire. The project area has been the subject of only limited exploration, with the most significant work dating back over 50 years to the 1960s. Exploration by Planet Mining in the late 1960s and early 1970s unearthed a series of nickel and copper anomalies across the project area which, when married with modern geophysics, appears to show these targets associated with a series of bedrock magnetic anomalies.
The magnetic targets at Sunfire are interpreted to be mafic-ultramafic intrusions, presenting a similar geological scenario to the recent, high profile Julimar and Mawson nickel-copper-PGE discoveries and an enviable pipeline of targets for Emu’s developing exploration program.
The most significant of these anomalies is the Yornup Mill target in the central tenement area, where surface sampling has already outlined an extensive geochemical target which stretches along more than 1.5 kilometres of strike. The Yornup target appears to only be limited by the extent of the existing geochemical survey, with both nickel and copper anomalism extending to the north and south of the prospect, highlighting a trio of new targets along strike including the Railway, Aerial and Seaton-Ross prospects.
A smattering of drilling across the Yornup Mill target has returned some impressive results including 19 metres at 1.07 per cent nickel from only 6m down-hole. Deeper diamond drilling at Yornup is also reported to have delivered the goods, intersecting disseminated sulphides and hinting at a potential magmatic source for the near surface nickel and copper mineralisation.
Emu is now casting a critical eye over Sunfire, where it is planning various programs of extensional surface sampling and geophysical surveying to confirm key targets, including Yornup Mill, prior to the initiation of drilling in the months ahead.
Emu is wading into a solid real estate address in the emergent South West Mineral Field which already hosts the stunning Julimar discovery and a wealth of world-class deposits. Operating mines in the region include the immense Boddington gold mine and potentially the world’s largest hard rock lithium deposit at Greenbushes.
With Emu building a pipeline of nickel sulphide targets at Sunfire and a bevy of samples already in the lab from recent auger sampling across its other regional project holdings, the company looks set to deliver a stream of nickel, copper and gold results in the months ahead as it moves into a renewed drilling campaign in the second half of 2021.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
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