Bryah Resources and OM Holdings get started on next round of manganese drilling at Bryah Basin

Bryah Resources (ASX: BYH) and its joint venture partner OM Holdings (ASX: OMH) have kicked off the next round of manganese drilling at the Bryah Basin manganese project in central Western Australia.

In this latest round, 2,000m of follow up drilling will be completed at the Horseshoe South mine, as well as Brumby Creek, Devils Hill and Black Caviar prospects.

This round of drilling is scheduled to finish by the end of June.

OM Holdings manganese earn-in

The campaign is part of OM’s recent agreement to earn up to 70% of Bryah’s manganese assets by spending $7.3 million on exploring the 660 square kilometre tenements.

Initial drilling started in May and comprised 122 holes for 3,062m at four locations – Horseshoe South, Brumby Creek, Devils Hill and Black Cat.

Assays from the initial program are pending and due before the end of the month.

Through the joint venture with OM, Bryah’s strategy is to unlock the manganese potential at its project, while firming up gold and copper across the tenements.

By the end of the year, the joint venture plans to publish a JORC-compliant manganese resource for the project as well as undertaking metallurgical test work, evaluating mining options and securing mining leases and approvals.

One of the priority drill targets Horseshoe South hosts a historic mine that produced 1 million tonnes of manganese ore during operation.

Rock chip sampling completed during 2018 returned numerous high-grade manganese assays across the project, with results in December revealing 54.5%, 51.4%, 49.9% and 45.4% manganese.

Copper and gold at Bryah Basin

While the joint venture is focused on unlocking manganese at the project, Bryah is firming up the asset’s copper and gold potential.

Bryah has noted the Windalah prospect has geological similarities to the Horseshoe Lights mine about 13km away.

The mine produced 1.6Mt at 4.2 grams per tonne gold for 216,000 ounces of the precious metal.

According to Bryah, gold mineralisation at Windalah remains open along strike and both up and down dip.

Drilling at Windalah last year uncovered up to 15.05g/t gold at the prospect, with notable intervals comprising 5m at 6.62g/t gold, including 1m at 15.05g/t gold; 3m at 6.69g/t gold, including 1m at 10.52g/t gold.

During the remainder of 2019, Bryah plans to begin follow up drilling at Windalah along with reconnaissance aircore and reverse circulation exploration at Wongawar, Wodger East and Fiddlers East prospects.

The company will also continue its soil sampling program.

Shares in Bryah were steady at $0.067 in mid-morning trade, with OM also steady at $0.865.