Emmerson Resources (ASX:ERM) shares were up as much as 31.4% today after high-grade gold hits at the company’s Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory indicated potential for an imminent greenfields discovery in jurisdiction known for bonanza-grade operations.
Shares in the company were last trading 28.6% higher at A$0.045, with a new high-grade discovery at Tennant Creek’s Mauretania prospect.
The maiden three-hole drilling program at Mauretania has returned 30 metres at 3.22g/t gold, 13.1g/t silver, 0.33 % copper and 723 parts per million bismuth from 57 metres, including 15 metres at 5.67g/t gold, 14.7g/t silver, 0.11% bismuth and 0.24% copper from 60 metres as well as 3 metres at 21.3g/t gold, 5.01g/t silver, 0.20% bismuth and 0.23% copper.
A lower copper-rich zone was found to comprise 24 metres at 1.07% copper, 8.51g/t silver and 0.4g/t gold from 78 metres.
Mauretania is open along strike and is associated with multi-element geochemical anomalies and rock chip assays up to 214g/t gold.
The bonanza-grade Nobles Nob mine, located some 35 kilometres to the south produced more than 1.1 million ounces of gold at an average recovered grade of 17.3g/t gold from a very small footprint of about 200 metres in strike extent and within 100 metres of surface.
Moreover the alteration, geochemistry and mineralogy from the recent drilling at Mauretania is similar, with high-grade gold associated with silver, copper and bismuth within hematite ironstone.
In exploration, this corresponds to weak magnetic geophysical signatures that have been overlooked by many previous explorers.
A promising region
The Tennant Creek Mineral Field (TCMF) is one of Australia’s highest grade gold and copper fields producing over 5.5 million ounces of gold and 470,000 tonnes of copper from a variety of deposits including Gecko, Orlando, Warrego, White Devil, Chariot and Golden Forty, all of which are within Emmerson’s exploration and joint venture portfolio.
Emmerson holds 2,500 square kilometres of ground in the TCMF, owns the only gold mill in the region and holds a substantial geological database plus extensive infrastructure and equipment. Emmerson has consolidated 95% of the highly prospective TCMF where only 8% of the historical drilling has penetrated below 150 metres.
Within Emmerson’s ground holding in the region, a higher grade resource of 100,000 ounces of gold at 17g/t has also been defined.
Historically, grades have been in the range of 15-10g/t for gold and 2-4% for copper.
Emmerson Managing Director, Rob Bills commented:
“We are wasting no time in planning the next drill campaign at Mauretania and surrounding prospects, and anticipate a very exciting end to the year. Both Emmerson and our partner Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) are highly encouraged by these early results which indicate a new, undercover green fields discovery emanating from good science and systematic exploration by committed teams working in partnership.
“We have a strong pipeline of quality opportunities to drill test during the December quarter, with drilling to re-commence at Mauretania later this month and then move to further follow-up drilling after our recent success at the GeckoGoanna project.”
In August, Emmerson returned bonanza grades of up to 10.6% copper that could extend the Goanna-Gecko Inferred Resource of 4.4 million tonnes at 2.1% copper and 0.11 grams per tonne gold within the 2.7 kilometre long Gecko-Goanna-Monitor mineralised corridor.
The multiple zones of high grade copper included
- 7 metres at 5.98% copper from 123 metres including 3 metres at 10.4% copper;
- 3 metres at 4.75% copper from 162 metres including 1 metres at 10.6% copper; and
- 1 metres at 2.37% copper from 221 metres.
Critical partnership
Emmerson is exploring the TCMF in conjunction with Evolution following the signing of a farm-in agreement in June last year.
Evolution is continuing to sole fund exploration expenditure of $15 million over three years to earn a 65% interest in Emmerson’s tenement holdings in the TCMF as part of stage 1 of the deal.
Exploration expenditure attributable to the stage 1 farm-in to date is approximately $6.5 million.
Analysis
The latest drilling at Tennant Creek is significant because the high-grades suggest a geological relation to the nearby high-grade Nobles Nob mine, which has produced more than 1 million ounces of gold.
The related mineralisation with the gold also suggests that a large gold deposit in the area may have been overlooked by previous explorers due to the weak magnetic signature.
Rock chips of up to 214g/t gold further indicate the bonanza-grade nature of this specific jurisdiction.
Upside potential for Emmerson stock is represented by plans for follow-up drill testing later this month at the Mauretania site and follow up to the recent success at the GeckoGoanna project.
The steady development of Emmerson’s Tennant Creek holdings during commodity cycle changes has been realised via supportive long-term JVs with Ivanhoe and now Evolution.
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