Tungsten Mining (ASX: TGN) has announced plans for a 40,000-metre drilling campaign to test the continuity of extensions beneath an indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate (MRE) at the Mulgine Trench prospect within its Mt Mulgine project in Western Australia.
The 140-hole reverse circulation program and will test the top portion of a December exploration target of between 165 million tonnes to 200Mt grading up to 0.12% tungsten trioxide and up to 220 parts per million molybdenum.
That equates to as much as 240,000t contained tungsten trioxide and 36,000t contained molybdenum.
The Mount Mulgine project is situated approximately 330 kilometres north-northeast of Perth and 15km northeast of Rothsay.
Adding MRE Tonnage
The company will drill the northern and southern ends of Mulgine Trench to determine the immediate extent of mineralisation along strike and three deep (480m) holes will test the potential of mineralisation at depth.
These holes, which will be located 280m northwest from previous exploration, will aim to confirm the continuity of mineralisation 80m to 160m beneath the MRE across a 1.5km strike.
The drilling campaign could add significant tonnages to the Mulgine Trench MRE, which sits at 247Mt grading 0.11% tungsten trioxide, 280ppm molybdenum, 0.13 grams per tonne gold, 6g/t silver, and 0.04% copper (at 0.05% tungsten trioxide cut-off).
It could upgrade as much as 100Mt to the Indicated category and potentially position the Mt Mulgine project as one of the largest tungsten developments in the world.
Drilling is scheduled to commence in May with assays expected six weeks after completion.
Record Tungsten Prices
Tungsten Mining chair Gary Lyons said the campaign had been timed to take advantage of commodity prices.
“Tungsten prices continue to rise to record levels, underscoring the importance of the stable and timely supply of this vital critical mineral to markets across the world,” he said.
“This drilling campaign reflects our drive to meet these favourable and ongoing market conditions through the development of a globally significant tungsten asset in one of the world’s most secure mining jurisdictions.”
Mr Lyons said positive results from the campaign could increase confidence to support future resource modelling and engineering.
