ASX debutant Carawine Resources (ASX: CWX) has identified a cobalt-manganese target at the historic Xmas prospect, part of its Oakover project in Western Australia.
Situated in the eastern Pilbara, a review of historic rock chip samples at Xmas revealed up to 55% manganese, 0.31% cobalt, 2,320 parts per million zinc, and 8,650ppm barium.
“It’s encouraging to finish the year with such strong results and increase our footprint in the region,” Carawine managing director David Boyd said.
Mr Boyd added the confirmation of the cobalt-manganese outcrop flagged the region’s potential to host more of the mineralisation.
“We’re looking forward to 2018, with Xmas one of a number of cobalt and copper targets within the Oakover project that we plan to follow up with additional ground work,” Mr Boyd said.
The company has applied for a further two exploration licences that encompass the Xmas host formation and to extend the company’s footprint in the area.
Former project owner, CRA Exploration discovered the Xmas prospect in the early 1990s and identified a 3km strike that returned cobalt grading between 0.01% and almost 0.5%, as well as manganese grading between 2.7% and 34.5%.
Further exploration at the prospect to confirm the historic results will involve geological mapping, rock chip sampling and integrating old and new data to establish drill targets.
Carawine was admitted to official quotation earlier this month, offering 35 million shares at A$0.20 each to raise A$7 million.
In addition to Oakover, Carawine has two other WA-based projects prospective for cobalt, copper, gold and nickel, as well as a polymetallic project in Victoria that hosts gold, copper, silver, zinc and lead.
Since listing, Carawine has focused on the Victorian project Jamieson and Oakover to define drilling targets.
Previous exploration at Jamieson has returned gold grading up to 122 grams per tonne.
The company’s share price closed at A$0.24 yesterday – up 20% on its listing price earlier this month.
