Bryah Resources Ltd (ASX:BYH) has identified high-grade manganese during reconnaissance mapping and sampling at its Bryah Basin project in central Western Australia.
The company recently expanded its copper-gold exploration program to include manganese and identified significant outcropping zones, which have collectively been dubbed Brumby Creek.
Reconnaissance work was undertaken with the aim of delineating these outcrops and generating targets for follow-up exploration and drilling.
A total of 19 rock chip samples were analysed, with five samples assaying above 40% manganese, including a high of 48.5%.
A further 12 samples assayed between 30-40%, making Brumby Creek comparable to the nearby Black Hill and Black Caviar prospects, where rock chips have recorded grades up to 50% manganese.
Bryah managing director Neil Marston said the latest results highlighted the benefits of having geologists methodically walking the ground and sampling.
He said: “The scale and manganese grades recorded from the Brumby Creek prospect are outstanding in our opinion, so it will be a priority target for follow-up work including drilling.
“We also look forward to testing the various other surface targets identified by our geological team with a program of shallow drill holes in the coming months.”
Conductive zone identified
Bryah has conducted an airborne versatile time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) survey, which identified an area with a conductive anomaly response at Brumby Creek.
The conductive zone is interpreted to be caused by geologically young scree deposits, which have potential for containing detrital manganese style mineralisation down-slope from outcropping manganese occurrences.
These deposits sit along the edge of a more conductive paleochannel to the west.
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A drilling program to test this conductive anomaly has been approved by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety,
The department has also approved work approvals and site heritage clearances for drilling at Black Hill, Black Caviar, Devils Hill and parts of Brumby Creek.
Remaining approvals for parts of Brumby Creek are pending, including for the main manganese outcrop.
Drilling activities will begin once access approvals and all logistics and contracts have been finalised.
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Brumby Creek lies within the Horseshoe Formation, which is a garnetiferous banded iron formation.
Relatively high manganese contents are inferred from the abundant manganese oxide staining in weathered and lateric rocks.
Lateric manganese ore has been mined at the nearby Horseshoe South and Mount Padbury Mines.
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Manganese outcrops have been mapped over a strike length of 2-kilometres along the western and southern slops of, and parallel to, the top of the Horseshoe Range.
The largest area of outcropping manganese identified occurs at the northern end of this strike and covers an area over 100 metres wide and 250 metres long.
Bryah considers this area of outcropping manganese to represent an outstanding untested drill target.