Miramar Resources Ltd (ASX:M2R) has been granted its first exploration licence in the Bangemall region, which the company believes is prospective for Proterozoic craton-margin nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) mineralisation.
The Western Australian-focused mineral exploration company will now commence planning for its first exploration programs later in the year.
Prospective for nickel-copper-PGE
Miramar executive chairman Allan Kelly said the regional datasets used to target the company’s Bangemall projects were the same datasets used by Chalice Mining Limited (ASX:CHN) (OTCMKTS:CGMLF) (FRA:C8U), which led to the discovery of the Julimar nickel-copper-PGE deposit near Bindoon.
He said: “The nickel-copper-PGE Atlas published by Geoscience Australia in 2016 highlighted a number of areas that appeared highly prospective for nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation but were underexplored.
“Two of the most obvious areas were the southwest of WA, which led to the Julimar discovery, and the Ashburton and Bangemall regions.
First mover in region
E52/3893 is one of six exploration licences and/or applications held by Miramar and which the company believes are prospective for Proterozoic craton-margin nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation like that seen in the Albany-Fraser Province (Nova-Bollinger), the West Musgraves (Nebo-Babel) and the giant Norilsk and Voisey Bay nickel deposits in Russia and Canada.
Miramar was a first mover in the region following the identification of a number of overlapping ingredients and/or signatures of a potentially large nickel-copper-PGE deposit, including the following:
➢ Presence of a significant volume of Proterozoic dolerite dykes and sills;
➢ Location adjacent to major crustal-scale mantle tapping structures;
➢ Presence of large regional-scale nickel-copper-PGE stream sediment anomalism; and
➢ Large conductors identified from regional-scale airborne EM surveys