Artemis Resources reveals nugget discoveries at recently acquired tenements, stages bounce back
Gold nuggets recovered within Elysian tenements and purchased from prospectors.
After a stream of announcements this week, Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) has reported further gold nugget discoveries at its recently acquired Pilbara tenements.
Earlier this month, Artemis secured a binding agreement to acquire 70% of land encompassing 302.27 square kilometres of tenements south of Karratha in Western Australia.
The tenement package involving several vendors, included two granted exploration licences, eight exploration applications and three prospecting applications.
Prospectors in the area informed Artemis’ geologists they had “witnessed the recovery of gold nuggets from the new acquisition tenements” that are adjacent to Artemis’s existing projects Comet Well and Radio Hill.
Artemis has confirmed the gold discovery locations with prospectors and purchased the nuggets.
As with other nugget finds in the region, these latest nuggets were also watermelon seed-shaped and coarse.
“Since the announcement on 10 November 2017 to acquire the controlling interest in the tenements next to Comet Well, Artemis has been discussing and watching local prospectors metal detect on the ground that extends west from Comet Well,” Artemis executive chairman David Lenigas said.
“The results over a short period of time, have identified both vein hosted and water melon seed nuggets,” he said.
Mr Lenigas added once the exploration and prospecting applications were granted, the company will begin exploring to see if the Purdy’s Reward and Comet Well mineralisation extended into the newly acquired landholding.
Pilbara gold stocks fall on exploration news
Artemis’ and its Pilbara neighbours’ stock were all swimming in a sea of red on Monday this week after Artemis’ Purdy’s Reward joint venture partner Novo Resources (TSXV: NVO) reported the more expensive bulk trenching process was the better method for exploring the conglomerate-style gold mineralisation in the region.
After the watermelon seed shaped nuggets were first discovered at Purdy’s Reward some months back, the Pilbara area had become an investor hot spot with explorers competing to peg up land and traders buying up explorers’ stock, with many believing they were witnessing the beginning of a modern gold rush.
However, the latest bulk trenching news has disappointed investors, with gold deposits proving to be not as simply exploited as first thought.
Artemis has remained stalwart against the negative tide and produced several announcements this week including two gold discoveries. The company has also kicked off its Radio Hill plant upgrade which will include a 500,000 tonne per annum integrated gravity gold circuit for processing its Pilbara gold ore.
The gold circuit is in addition to the plant’s 500,000tpa capacity to treat Artemis’ nearby nickel, cobalt and copper ore.
To fast-track its ability to bulk sample its conglomerate gold, Artemis is relocating its mobile 100t per hour gravity gold plant to Radio Hill.
Investor sentiment appears to have regained some earlier positivity, with Artemis’ stock up more than 12% in mid afternoon trade to sit at A$0.32, bouncing back from it’s A$0.28 low on Tuesday.