Ambitious Artemis gets its hands on priority Pilbara gold ground

Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) is seeking to unlock further gold riches in the Pilbara region having been granted two key exploration licences hosting conglomerate gold.

Artemis and Canadian joint venture partner Novo Resources famously kicked off the Pilbara gold nugget rush in July 2017 when they discovered “watermelon-seed” shaped gold nuggets found at or close to surface over extensive strike lengths at the Purdy’s Reward project south of Karratha.

The two key licences granted today – which don’t form part of the Novo Joint Venture – surround its Radio Hill operations, linking its tenements to Novo Resources’ Comet Well project area.

The licences include the well-known 47 Patch conglomerate hosted gold find and also contain the extension of the gold bearing conglomerates running from Purdy’s Reward westwards through Novo’s Comet Well prospect.

“This is a priority project for Artemis,” said Artemis Executive Chairman David Lenigas.

“These tenements fill in the missing but highly important keyhole between Novo’s Comet Well project and Artemis’ assets around Radio Hill and Whundo.

“These tenements cover the immediate westerly extension of Comet Well, where Artemis witnessed local prospectors recover gold nuggets from surface with metal detectors.”

A Programme of Works will be lodged today with the WA Department for Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety to begin a detailed trenching, pitting, and drilling program.

Artemis will also be submitting a POW application today for excess tonnage bulk samples up to 20,000 tonnes.

Last month, the company announced it had received all approvals to process the first 4,500 tonne bulk sample of gold bearing conglomerates at its Radio Hill plant site near Karratha in Western Australia. The bulk sampling will determine the overall “grams per tonne” of gold from the conglomerate material.

Mr Lenigas said 47 Patch has been chosen as the prime focus for extracting the first 4,500 tonnes bulk sample for processing and grade determination at Radio Hill.

Artemis is also seeking to increase tonnages to be processed to 50,000 tonnes by the end of June 2018.

Today’s news comes after Artemis flagged it would be drilling a super-deep +3,300m diamond drill hole on its Balmoral area, about 50km south of its Radio Hill mine and processing plant.

The hole will be drilled in the area where Fox Resources completed a VTEM survey that resulted in the discovery of six new clusters of base metal targets.

The company has also recently called on Australia’s peak science body CSIRO to investigate the origin of conglomerate hosted gold in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Shares in Artemis were trading unmoved in mid-afternoon trade at A$0.20.