Tempest Minerals Ltd (ASX:TEM) has fielded positive assay results from drilling it wrapped up in late 2022 at its 100%-owned Meleya Project, 460 kilometres north of Perth.
The initial review of results shows highly anomalous results for several critical metals including nickel, tungsten, cobalt and rare earth elements (REE).
TEM completed 91 holes for 7,410 metres of drilling and the assays from 6,346 metres of aircore and reverse circulation (RC) drilling are now in, with the remaining diamond drill program results expected during this quarter.
Highlights
The drilling shows the presence of critical minerals, including nickel and rare earths, with results including:
- 5 metres at 0.11% nickel + 0.09% chromium from 101 metres;
- 3 metres at 0.54% tungsten and 0.07% cobalt from 21 metres; and
- 6 metres at 0.13% REO (rare earth oxides) – 686 parts per million (ppm) cerium + 348 lanthanum + 86 ppm yttrium from 51 metres, including 3 metres at 0.2% REO - 1,085 ppm cerium + 348 ppm lanthanum + 135 ppm yttrium from 48 metres.
The company thinks these results highlight the prospectivity of the Yalgoo Region for multiple commodities and is reviewing the results with a view to further drilling in the area in 2023.
The Meleya Project
Meleya is part of Tempest Minerals’ flagship Yalgoo Portfolio that extends over a footprint of more than 1,000 square kilometres.
The interpreted Yalgoo Greenstone Supracrustal unit covers a rough area of 4,000 square kilometres, meaning that Tempest holds around 25% of the active exploration leases regionally.
Tempest has for some time considered the target zones at Meleya to represent one of the most exciting greenfields base and precious metal upside exploration opportunities in the industry today.
After noting a “discordant regional geophysical signature” in 2019, TEM identified 50 kilometres of a previously unrecognised and unexplored segment of the Yalgoo Greenstone Belt and has been actively exploring it since with extensive fieldwork and geochemical sampling and culminating in drilling in early 2022.
Next steps
The company plans to model all drilling results and multi-sensor hyperspectral data with a view to planning further drilling.
Assays for the diamond drilling component of the program are due later in the quarter, with assay results for the Meleya East (Ktulu) surface sampling program due in February.