Recently listed Ark Mines (ASX: AHK) has applied for 99 exploration units totalling 287 square kilometres in the prospective gold copper silver Lachlan Fold Belt near the company’s Babinda Project in New South Wales.
The company has recently received encouraging results from the completed ground gravity survey at Babinda and is looking to expand its tenement holding around the project.
Once granted the new project area, named Coonara, Ark's holding around Babinda will increase to 337 square kilometres with mineralisation evident from over 20 historical mines on the project.
The Lachlan Fold Belt region has a history of recent significant mineral discoveries and hosts a number of current world-class gold and base metal-silver mines.
The company has ongoing survey work being undertaken at Babinda with a second geophysics team engaged in more detailed gravity surveying to refine drilling targets.
Ark plans to begin drilling targeting gold and rare earth elements at the Bald Hills Project by Thursday 19 May, with drill sites being prepared and the drill rig expected to arrive on site within the next few days.
The old Babinda Copper Mine on the project has recorded one line shafts of 31 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 7.0% copper, and 367g/t silver in multiple veins.
Ark Mines was admitted to the ASX on May 9 following a successful IPO offering 15.5 million shares at $0.20 to raise $3.1 million. Ark has 22.4 million shares on issue.