Meteoric Resources NL (ASX:MEI) has mobilised to begin 2022 field season work at the Palm Springs Gold Project in Western Australia.
The new field season comprises three distinct objectives:
- Discover additional mineralisation in structural repetitions of host units close to Butchers Creek;
- Expand and improve the existing mineral resource at Golden Crown where the current inferred resource stands at 390,000 tonnes at 3.1 g/t gold for 38,000 ounces; and
- Test undrilled historical gold mineralisation within 15 kilometres of Butchers Creek to grow the project.
Meteoric’s field crew mobilised to the project in early May and has undertaken extensive reconnaissance mapping and rock chip sampling at Butchers Creek North, Mt Bradley, north of Golden Crown, and at Halls Gully prospects.
An induced polarisation (IP) survey will kick off this week followed up with 2,000 metres of reverse circulation drill testing at Butchers North and Golden Crown.
“Great progress”
Meteoric non-executive director Dr Andrew Tunks said: “With the A$30 million-plus cash sale of our Brazilian assets moving towards completion, our focus is now squarely both on the acquisition of new projects and the accelerated development of Palm Springs.
“We have made great progress in our exploration at Palm Springs since we acquired the project in 2020 with a significant maiden resource and some amazing drilling results.
“It is great to have crews back in the field with new targets to explore and to expand on our previous success. We are particularly looking forward to the results of the IP survey which should provide drill targets for later in the season.
“The Kimberley region remains significantly underexplored, particularly in terms of drill testing the multitude of historic gold workings and gold geochemical anomalies.
“On our ground, we have several significant zones of highly anomalous rock chips, and soil geochemistry associated with major structural features such as the Halls Creek Fault and one of our primary goals is to test these areas in the 2022 field season.”
Maiden resource
The 2022 season is expected to build on the significant progress made in the company’s first two years including a maiden resource that stands at 5.7 million tonnes at 1.94 g/t gold for 355,000 ounces of gold with more than 40% of this in the indicated category.
Strong drilling intersections achieved by Meteoric’s exploration team included:
- 69 metres at 4.4 g/t gold from 181 metres, including 19 metres at 7.2 g/t;
- 56 metres at 2.7 g/t from 181 metres, including 18 metres at 4.9 g/t from 203 metres;
- 45 metres at 2.3 g/t from 259 metres, including 5 metres at 10.8 g/t from 261 metres;
- 53 metres at 2.1 g/t from 147 metres; and
- 8 metres at 10.4 g/t from 156 metres, including 2 metres at 34.4 g/t from 160 metres.
IP survey
The objectives of Meteoric’s IP survey are to assess the IP response (dominantly chargeability) of known mineralisation south of Butchers Creek and at Golden Crown using orientation lines across the deposits.
In addition, the survey will identify blind mineralised syenite down plunge and along strike from the known deposits with additional lines north and south, and finally, identify any mineralised syenite at new targets at Mt Bradley and Halls Gully with dedicated lines at each.
The IP survey will kick off this week on the following targets:
- Three orientation lines over deposits at Butchers Creek and Golden Crown;
- One survey line to identify blind mineralised syenite down plunge, along strike, or as structural repeats of Butchers Creek mineralisation (north);
- Two survey lines to identify blind mineralised syenite down plunge, or along strike where detailed mapping has identified prospective syenite with no drilling (north and south); and
- Two survey lines over the new Halls Creek target looking for structural repeats of the mineralisation north of Butchers Creek.