Artemis embarks on super-deep drill hole to uncover Pilbara potential

Two days after receiving processing approvals for its conglomerate gold, Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) reported it was about to embark on a super-deep diamond drill hole to discover the mineralisation source that has resulted in multi-commodity surface deposits in Western Australia’s Pilbara.

Artemis has identified 31 anomalies in the area that are prospective for base metals, with geochemical anomalies indicating the presence of cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc lead and gold at surface near the first super-deep hole target.

The hole will exceed more than 3,300m on the company’s Balmoral project, which is about 50km south of Artemis’ Radio Hill mine.

Artemis is initially drilling to find base metals, cobalt, gold and diamonds to gain a better understanding of the extent and types of mineralisation found at depth in the area.

“This is a very exciting super-deep hole for Artemis and the drilling of this hole should help answer many questions surrounding the geology and rock sequences in the Pilbara Basin,” Artemis executive chairman David Lenigas stated.

“This Pilbara region of WA is one of the most resource rich areas in Australia and there has been very little exploration at depth,” he said, adding, “It’s time that someone started looking for the source of a lot of mineralisation in the western Pilbara that has fed the many surface deposits of cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, gold and platinum group elements, within Artemis’ extensive tenement package south of Karratha.”

Artemis is now finalising the approvals needed before it can start drilling the hole.

This latest news from the company follows it receiving permission to process a 4,500-tonne bulk sample of conglomerate ore at its Radio Hill plant.

“This permitting has taken some months to put in place, and we are pleased to advise that the government has now permitted the use of a gravity gold plant at our Radio Hill plant to process 4,500 tonnes of conglomerate material,” Mr Lenigas said.

He added the company was now prioritising areas to generate the bulk samples.

Additionally, Artemis has also reported it has locked-in a further four tenements in the Pilbara in joint venture with conglomerate gold focussed Novo Resources (TSXV: NVO).

The new tenements total about 178.82 square kilometres are about 60km south-east of Karratha in the region and near to the famed Purdy’s Reward deposit where the conglomerate-style gold mineralisation was first uncovered.

Earlier in February, bulk sampling from shallow trenches at Purdy’s Reward had returned gold grading up to 87.7 grams per tonne and affording Novo and Artemis a better-understanding of the grade and distribution of the conglomerate gold across the project.

Purdy’s Reward

Purdy’s Reward sparked a gold frenzy in the Pilbara last year after Novo and Artemis discovered the conglomerate-style gold mineralisation.

The mineralisation was evident in the numerous watermelon seed-shaped gold nuggets found across the project.

Novo and Artemis found the nuggets reminiscent of nuggets extracted from the world’s largest known gold deposit in South Africa – the Witwatersrand gold reef, which has given up more than 1.5 million ounces of gold during its time and more to come.

However, late last year, Novo and Artemis reported traditional drilling had failed to produce the exploration results the duo had anticipated. The joint venture noted the more expensive bulk trenching method would offer up more accurate results.

Despite the hurdle, Novo and Artemis have remained stalwart about the region’s gold potential.

In the first few minutes of trade, Artemis’ share price rose more than 2% to A$0.22.