Third gold discovery at Artemis Resources’ Silica Hills project in a month
In keeping with the current Pilbara gold rush theme, Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) has discovered more of the precious metal at its Silica Hills project about 23km southeast of Karratha and 12km from the renowned Purdy’s Gold prospect.
This is the company’s third reported gold find at Silica Hills in a month. On 7 September 2017, Artemis announced to shareholders it had recovered 24 ounces of specimen gold from Silica Hills. This was in addition to an announcement a week earlier when Artemis stated it had identified 26 ounces of gold at the project.
Specimen quartz/gold nuggets recovered above 1 ounce with a total weight of 609 grams plus a gold bar poured from small vein/quartz gold weighing 1,242 grams. Total weight 1,851 grams (1.851 Kg, 59.5 ounces).
In this latest find, Artemis reported a further 59.5 ounces gold had been uncovered from quartz reefs within Silica Hills’ shear zone.
Artemis executive chairman David Lenigas said the “coarse nuggetty gold” within the shear zone was becoming more evident as the company continued exploring to the east.
“We will continue the current work program, and once a program of work is approved by DMIRS [Department of Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety] for trenching and pitting, exploration efforts will rapidly expand to the north into our exploration tenement E47/1746,” Mr Lenigas said.
He added the company had put in a request with the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation to carry out an expanded heritage survey at Silica Hills and surrounding areas.
To-date, seven months of exploration at Silica Hills has uncovered a quartz vein-style gold deposit and Artemis holds mining licences for the Silica Hills tenements.
Additionally, in early 2017, Artemis acquired the Fox Radio Hill 425,000 tonne per annum processing plant to process its ore. The company also has various required approvals and infrastructure to shorten its exploration-to-operation timeline.
Proximity to Purdy’s Reward
Silica Hills is 12km north-west of the company’s jointly held Purdy’s Reward prospect, which sparked gold fever in the region due to the gold’s high purity and similarities to the world-renowned Witwatersrand gold deposit in South Africa.
Artemis’ tenement package in the Karratha Region of Western Australia.
TSX-listed Novo Resources Corp (TSX: NVO) currently has an agreement with Artemis to farm in to earn a 50% stake in Purdy’s Reward.
With continual gold discovery announcements in recent months, the Pilbara has become an investor hotspot with several gold explorers in the area enjoying unprecedented highs to their stock prices including joint venture partner Novo, plus De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG), Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI), Kairos Minerals (ASX: KAI), Venturex Resources (ASX: VXR), and Haoma Mining (ASX: HOA).
Artemis’ shares jumped more than 8% in early morning trade, on news of the discovery.