Tambourah gold hunt pivots with discovery of pegmatites
Capping off its first round of holes in one of WA’s historical gold mining centres, Tambourah Metals has spotted what it believes could be lithium-bearing pegmatites at its namesake gold project. After lighting up geophysical anomalies and taking aim beneath past workings, the explorer has fired off its inaugural volley of 23 reverse circulation holes for 2527m across its numerous gold targets.
Whilst the gold exploration programme is in full swing and assays are awaited, the company says it has spotted the pegmatites across its project area in three distinct settings – on the contact between the granites and the greenstones, in the greenstones and unusually also in the granites.
The pegmatites will now be mapped and targets will be worked up.
Meanwhile the holes aimed at discovering gold extensions along strike and beneath historical high-grade prospects will be assayed and results returned in about three months.
Of high interest will be the holes plunged into the Kushmattie prospect hosting the historical strike from 1991 of 8m grading 13 grams per tonne gold within 10m going 10.6 g/t gold from 35m downhole. Another round of drilling in 2019 yielded 3m running 1.3 g/t gold from 57m.
Just 1km north of Kushmattie is the Federal Workings prospect and it seems Tambourah is not the only one interested in the area.
Courtesy of its Exploration Incentive Scheme, the Western Australian Government packed some extra cash into Tambourah’s saddlebags to go after the Federal Workings prospect in its drilling campaign, likely because of the reported historical production of 15.25 ounces of gold from 11 tonnes of ore between 1892 to 1898. Curiously, with such fabled historical production the prospect still has not been explored or drilled since 1898.
The Tambourah King, Western Chief and Western Chief South prospects also saw some drill bit action.
The explorer says its campaign has confirmed the presence of sulphides and quartz veins in the interpreted mineralised zones within the barren host rock which means the assay results will no doubt be highly anticipated.
Tambourah says geological information now gathered will build on its geological model and help guide further exploration – in particular it will assist in refining drill targeting.
The company is also awaiting assay results from 15 rock chip samples that it collected in parallel with the gold exploration campaign.
Tambourah points 80km to the northwest where the operating world-class Pilgangoora lithium mine and its neighbouring Wodgina lithium deposits lie to underline the lithium prospectivity of the region.
The explorer says its boots are now firmly on the ground assessing the initial pegmatite sightings and its field team is also combing the wider area for more pegmatites.
Interestingly, no previous lithium exploration has been undertaken at Tambourah’s gold project, leaving the door ajar for the company to make a potentially exciting entrance into the lithium space in a region that is no stranger to big discoveries.
An induced polarisation survey is planned to delineate potentially mineralised shoots of gold whereas aerial photography and geophysics will be investigated for the in-demand battery metal lithium.
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