Everest to snap up WA gold project

Everest Metals Corporation has entered into a tenement sale agreement to wholly acquire two gold-prospective exploration leases southwest of Paynes Find in WA known as the Ninghan project. The asset takes in a 228 square kilometre ground position and is in an area with a host of operations in the one million-ounce club including Minjar Gold’s namesake play and Kirkalocka Gold’s nearby property.

The zone is also home to the 2.1 million-ounce Mount Gibson gold project, Surefire Resources’ exciting Yidby Gold project and Silver Lake Resources’ over 380,000-ounce Rothsay Gold venture

Everest says it already has a program of works for a drilling program approved by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety with a geochemical sampling program now in its crosshairs.  The company believes the geochemical activity will allow it to collect a host of data to support a future drill campaign. The work is currently planned for launch later this quarter with a potential drilling program to follow.

Ninghan is positioned about 40km southwest of Paynes Find in the Shire of Yalgoo and sits roughly 400km northeast of Perth. The project comprises a pair of tenements that straddle the Great Northern Highway. The northern lease is adjacent to Surefire’s Yidby Gold project in WA’s Mid West where the company recently tabled outstanding gold recoveries of between 97.6 per cent and 99.5 per cent from gravity and cyanide leach tests on samples from the operation.

A recent Surefire probe at Yidby delivered broad zones of mineralisation including a 60m hit going 1.04 grams per tonne gold from 32m along with a richer 4m section going 10.4 g/t from 72m. The program follows a host of solid historical intercepts including 3m going 26.5 g/t gold from 150m inside a larger 44m hit at 2.77 g/t from a depth of 148m.

The second lease in Everest’s potential acquisition is positioned beneath the Great Northern Highway and is north of Capricorn’s over 130 square kilometre Mount Gibson project.

The company has been on something of a shopping spree of late, lodging an application to acquire two battery and precious metal prospective tenements near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory earlier this week. The total application area encompasses the Georgina and Amadeus projects that host 15 exploration licences for roughly 10,200 square kilometres.

According to the Northern Territory Geological Survey, the area around Everest’s new Georgina dwellings holds several copper-gold occurrences along with lithium pegmatites and rare earths. The Perth-based company’s Amadeus Basin tenement is renowned for its historical hydrocarbon resources with discoveries at the site dating back to the early 1960s. Management says Amadeus could also host sediment-hosted copper, lead and zinc mineralisation.

Everest has quickly filled its dance card this year after picking up a potentially fruitful patch of turf in a bustling part of WA. If its new land proves as well endowed as its neighbours things could get interesting very quickly as work across the asset gathers steam.

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