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Artemis Resources identifies seven high-priority targets at Armada on Paterson Range

Last updated: 03:33 12 Dec 2019 GMT, First published: 00:34 12 Dec 2019 GMT

Artemis Resources identifies seven high-priority targets within copper-gold Armada prospect
Newcrest has six drill rigs on site at Havieron and continues to drill towards Artemis’ tenement boundary

Artemis Resources Limited (ASX:ARV) has identified seven high priority targets within Armada prospect contiguous to the Havieron discovery on Paterson Range in WA's East Pilbara.

Drilling has been approved on the targets, subject to heritage surveys, with the Kzinti, Bandi and Bolian targets sitting immediately to the north of Havieron.

Artemis is watching the progress by Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX:NCM) at Havieron where mineralisation is open to the north, in the direction of the Armada targets.

New step-out drilling by Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX:NCM) appears likely to elevate the prospectivity of Artemis’ Kzinti target just 1.2 kilometres to the north.

Newcrest now has six drill rigs on site at Havieron and continues to drill towards Artemis’ tenement boundary.

A seismic study has interpreted good structural complexity in the basement within the Armada project around the Havieron discovery.

“High value but greenfield area”

Executive director Ed Mead said: “The Artemis board sees the Paterson Range as highly prospective and the Armada project as a high-value but greenfield area.

“Artemis has defined seven priority targets worthy of follow-up that provide a pathway forward that includes further geophysics, geochemistry and drilling, that could create significant value for Artemis shareholders.

“The reprocessing of the 1987 Moodoo Seismic line focusing on the nearer surface portion of the seismic data indicates structures of interest, in relation to the HaverIon project being drilled by Newcrest and around the location of the Orion and Romulan targets identified by Artemis.”

Interpretation in aim to conduct geophysical surveys 

The Artemis targets were discovered through recent magnetic and survey results, which initially defined 10 targets.

Six were originally rated as priority-1 - Kazon, Ferengi, Bolian, Kzinti, Maquis, Vidiian - and four as priority-2 - Arcadian, Edosian, Ocampa and Edos - with the primary aim of the interpretation being to rank targets for focused geophysical surveys or potential drill testing.

A subsequent semi-regional gravity survey and 3D inversion outcomes defined limited density contrast targets in several locations and very few were directly coincident with the primary targets.

Based on the 3D gravity inversion-isosurface results, along with the earlier defined aeromagnetic targets, the company re-ranked targets and identified three new targets - Bandi, Orion and Romulan.

Reinterpreting the previous targets from the magnetic surveys and considering the gravity results, the company has now identified seven priority targets: Kazon, Ferengi, Bolian, Ocampa, Bandi, Orion and Romlan.

The Armada project covers 605 square kilometres and is about 40 kilometres east of Newcrest’s multi-million-ounce Telfer Gold-Copper Mine and is contiguous to the Havieron gold-copper discovery by Greatland Gold PLC (LON:GGP).

“Results from reprocessing encouraging”

Mead continued: “Results from reprocessing are encouraging as they indicate folding within the basement that could be a site for trapping mineralised hydrothermal fluids.

“A Program of Work (PoW) application has been lodged for approval to drill these seven priority targets, subject to heritage surveys being conducted.

“Further work will assess the best path forward and further drill results from Havieron will provide more information to generate better target selection.”

The Armada tenement boundary that surrounds the Havieron discovery

Looking ahead

The company has lodged a PoW application to the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) for approval to drill the priority targets, subject to conducting heritage surveys as per the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972.

The primary ranked geophysical targets provide a pathway forward that may include:

  • Orientation high powered EM/MT ground surveying/soundings - limited transects over primary target zones to characterise the conductivity properties of the thick cover sequence and the thickness/depth to basement;
  • Drilling an initial deep drill hole on deemed primary target and completing downhole geophysical logging to define the conductivity/physical properties of the thick cover sequence and also the thickness/depth to basement; and
  • A geochemical program over-identified targets.

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