ASX-listed junior explorer Oar Resources says it now has boots on the ground at its greenfields Crown nickel-copper-PGE project in the emerging Julimar province about 70km north-east of Perth in WA. The Perth-based company wasted no time kicking off the first-pass exploration phase after being granted an exploration licence covering Crown in the previous quarter.
Oar hopes the current reconnaissance program will help it gain a better understanding of the local geology within the project tenure.
Crown lies within cooee of stock market darling Chalice Mining’s coveted Gonneville nickel-copper-PGE discovery at its Julimar project that occurs in a layered mafic-ultramafic rock complex.
On the back of the Gonneville discovery, Chalice’s share price took off from a paltry 16¢ in March last year to break through $7.
The company’s market cap has skyrocketed to more than $2.4 billion.
Assays from Chalice’s continuing massive 160,000m, multi-rig step-out and resource definition drilling blitzkrieg at the Gonneville deposit will be plugged into a maiden mineral resource statement planned to be released in the December quarter this year.
According to the company, the Gonneville intrusion spans about 1.8km by 0.9km.
Oar says its strategic ground-holding only 8km west of the Julimar complex takes in several magnetic features interpreted to represent mafic volcanic rocks, which the company considers to be highly prospective for hosting similar nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation to that at Julimar.
Geological mapping and rock chip sampling have been carried out at Crown and a preliminary assessment of the early data has been promising, according to Oar.
The geological mapping and rock chip sampling was designed to test and corroborate a detailed interpretation of regional magnetic data within the project area conducted by independent consultants Southern Geoscience that identified at least 20 separate priority targets.
Samples have been submitted to the lab and the wait begins.
Oar is now eyeing a second round of geological mapping and rock chip sampling aimed at putting more flesh on its geological model for Crown.
Following this work, Oar says it plans to undertake a systematic geochemical soil sampling program at Crown and then, subject to encouraging indicators, an inaugural round of drilling – and things will start to get very interesting then.
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