Tambourah steps up high-grade WA gold hunt
Exploration company, Tambourah Metals is getting set to pump out the drill metres at its namesake gold project and its Cheela gold project in the Pilbara region after securing relevant ‘programme of work’ approvals from the West Australian Government. Historical drilling at the company’s Tambourah project returned multiple high-grade intercepts including a sublime 10 metres grading 10.8 grams per tonne gold and an impressive 8m at 13.6 g/t gold.
The company recently listed on the ASX on the back of a strongly supported initial public offering that saw the explorer pocket $8m for exploration works across its WA tenement portfolio.
A total of 63 RC holes across two stages are now planned at the company’s 100 per cent owned Tambourah tenure to follow-up on high-grade historical workings and past drilling at the project. The first stage of the proposed drilling is set to take in 30 holes early in the new year.
Historical mining at the turn of the 20th century produced more than 5,000 ounces of gold at a whopping 30.0 grams per tonne from several locations at the project.
Other notable hits from past drilling at its tenure include 9m at 5.92 g/t gold from 35m, 10m grading 5.13 g/t gold from 37m and a 1m interval going 26.3 g/t gold from 21m hosted within a broader 3m intercept grading 9.10 g/t gold.
Curiously, sampling by the company between historical mine workings along a four-kilometre strike at the property delivered 6.275 g/t gold and an eye-catching 33.364 g/t gold.
Meanwhile, Tambourah also plans to sink 27 RC holes and up to 130 air core holes at its underexplored Cheela gold project further to the south-west in the Pilbara.
The wholly owned Cheela takes in around 38,000 hectares and lies along the major structural corridor of the Nanjilgardy Fault.
Interestingly, the Paulsen’s gold mine operated by mining heavyweight, Northern Star and the 1.6-million-ounce Mt Olympus gold deposit are both nearby along the same geological structure.
Historical drilling along 7km of strike at Cheela returned multiple significant gold hits including a broad 16m intercept going 4.75 g/t gold from 88m and a shallower 12m interval grading 3.85 g/t gold from 34m.
The proposed drilling campaign at Cheela aims to follow-up the historical intercepts that also include 13m at 5.0 g/t gold and 11m at 4.17 g/t gold.
Tambourah’s project portfolio also includes its 80 per cent owned Julimar North nickel, copper and platinum project near Chalice Mining’s revered Gonneville discovery in Western Australia.
Tambourah’s recently expanded Julimar North tenure combines for a massive 1,140 square kilometres, elevating Tambourah to become the second largest landholder in the white-hot exploration region.
Chalice has been the talk of the town since its discovery hole at Gonneville last year hit 25m at 2.0 per cent nickel, 0.9 per cent copper, 8.5 g/t palladium, 0.9 g/t platinum, 0.1 g/t gold and 0.11 per cent cobalt from 46m.
Incredibly, Chalice’s share price has soared from less than $0.20 prior to discovery to a high of more than $10 after it recently released a maiden 330 million tonne resource for Gonneville grading 0.58 per cent nickel equivalent and 1.6 g/t palladium equivalent.
Tambourah recently wrapped up an airborne gravity survey across two areas located at Julimar North, the Bulgar East and Tolarno prospects.
That program sought to identify ultramafic rocks prospective for nickel, copper and platinum mineralisation and management says results from the survey are due in the coming weeks.
The company is now planning to conduct a ground-based electromagnetic survey to pinpoint drill targets at Bulgar East and Tolarno early in the new year. A subsequent drilling campaign is planned for the first quarter of next year.
Tambourah appears set for an abundance of news flow in the coming months as its exploration efforts in Western Australia continue to gather steam. Pundits will likely be taking note as the Perth-based explorer unleashes the rig for a high-grade gold hunt across two compelling projects in the Pilbara.
Many newly minted ASX listed hopefuls are looking to find either grade or length to expand on historical drill numbers that lacked one or the other or even both. This is not however an issue for Tambourah who has both grade and length in its historical drill numbers – it just needs to prove it can find more of the same and it will be off to the races for Tambourah followers.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au