Red Mountain Mining (ASX: RMX) has returned high-grade antimony assays from 13 rock chip samples at the Oaky Creek prospect within its Armidale antimony-gold project in New South Wales.
Samples the company collected from the southern half of the 1.2 kilometre-long Oaky Creek North soil anomaly were analysed for antimony, silver, arsenic, and tungsten using sodium peroxide fusion and mass spectrometry, and for gold using a 50 gram fire assay charge and spectroscopy finish.
Eleven of the samples returned antimony grades higher than 1.9%, with highlights of 19.1%, 23.1%, and 34.3%.
The majority of samples also contained anomalous arsenic of more than 100 parts per million, with a peak value of 467ppm, while two had detectable gold grading over 100 parts per billion (or 0.1 grams per tonne).
The antimony-arsenic-gold association is consistent with Red Mountain’s primary exploration target of a vein-style orogenic antimony-gold deposit analogous to Australia’s largest antimony deposit at Hillgrove, 100km east of Armidale, owned by Larvotto Resources (ASX: LRV).
First Phase of Sampling
Red Mountain collected the Oaky Creek North samples in December during the first phase of an auger soil sampling campaign to tighten its existing soil grid and better constrain high-priority drill targets.
It aimed to test the extension of a 200m antimony-arsenic auger soil anomaly at Oaky Creek South that is open to the northeast, as well as explore the area between the previous auger sampling program and the historical workings at Oaky Creek South, where conventional soils define a weak but coherent antimony anomaly.
The company expects to receive assay results later this quarter, with follow-up field work planned to complete the full auger sampling program at Oaky Creek North and Oaky Creek South.
Highest-Priority Target
Oaky Creek is Red Mountain’s highest-priority target at Armidale, and one of six known orogenic gold and antimony mineral occurrences within the tenement with strong structural, lithological and mineralogical similarities to Hillgrove.
The company intends to drill test the prospect this year alongside a high-resolution airborne magnetic-radiometric survey to define locations for initial soil sampling at Horsley Station and Horsley North (gold) targets, and possible follow-up work at East Hills (antimony-gold).
East Hills has previously returned rock chip assays up to 9.9% antimony and soil results of up to 109ppm and 304ppm antimony.
The Australian government has prioritised Antimony in its Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve and Strategy, providing strong policy validation for Red Mountain’s antimony projects.
