- 01IND secures North Pool licence in Laverton.
- 02Targets Chatterbox Shear Zone; historic high-grade intercepts.
- 03Heritage survey and approvals underway for RC.
Industrial Minerals (ASX: IND) has secured a new exploration licence over the North Pool project within its recently acquired Laverton gold project in Western Australia, clearing a key tenure step ahead of maiden drilling.
The grant covers a coherent magnetic and gravity target along the Chatterbox Shear Zone with an interpreted strike extent of at least 1,700 metres, where historical drilling returned multiple high-grade gold intersections that were not systematically followed up.
North Pool lies about 1.5 kilometres along strike from the Beasley Creek deposit of Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD), which contains 430,000 ounces at 2.0 grams per tonne gold within the same banded iron formation (BIF)-hosted structural setting.
Industrial Minerals is now progressing heritage work, contractor selection, and approvals so reverse circulation drilling can begin as soon as possible after the required survey and approvals are completed.
Target Taking Shape
The company’s reinterpretation of historical drilling, open-file aeromagnetic, and gravity data defined the discrete magnetic and gravity feature along the Chatterbox Shear Zone, the principal mineralised structure at North Pool.
That feature coincides with a cluster of historical high-grade gold intercepts, including a standout 1m at 82.2g/t from 63m and 4m at 19.17g/t from surface, with other drilling also returning elevated gold grades across the target area.
The tenement grant allows Industrial Minerals to advance the approvals and on-ground activities needed to test the structure beneath and between the historical intercepts.
“With the tenement now granted, our focus is squarely on getting a rig onto North Pool,” managing director Warrick Clent said.
“High-grade intercepts […] from surface have never been properly followed up, and we are looking forward to testing them.”
Heritage Survey Planned
Industrial Minerals is continuing engagement with the registered native title holders to arrange and complete a heritage survey over the planned drill area at the earliest opportunity.
At the same time, it is finalising selection and engagement of a drilling contractor while progressing the required Program of Work approval with the Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration.
The planned RC program will step out along the Chatterbox Shear Zone and test the structure at depth beneath and between the historical high-grade intersections, with drilling scheduled to start following the heritage survey and receipt of all necessary approvals.
The broader Laverton project comprises exploration licences covering about 205 square kilometres, with mineralisation hosted in BIF sequences and associated mafic volcanic units.
The project is structurally controlled by the Chatterbox Shear Zone and related northeast-trending structures, giving Industrial Minerals a wider geological setting in which to assess the North Pool target as drilling preparations continue.
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