Gold Mountain maintains momentum across Brazil and PNG portfolio
Exploration junior Gold Mountain (ASX: GMN) maintained momentum in the three months to the end of June with increasing activity in Brazil and planning for future work in Papua New Guinea.
The company is currently focused on exploring the province-scale Down Under and Ronaldinho project areas in Brazil’s Bahia state, as well as following up a major review of historical data at its Wabag project in Papua New Guinea.
Brazilian interests
Down Under and Ronaldinho cover a combined 1,773 square kilometres containing strong thorium signals and ultra-high-grade hard rock monazite-hosted rare earths, niobium, uranium and scandium.
The mineralisation is contiguous and along strike from a 510 million tonne inferred mineral resource owned by Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX: BRE) that includes a free dig of 4.1Mt at 32,000 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO).
An initial 345 samples from a radiometric traversing and stream sediment program returned high-grade results of up to 4,582ppm TREO, showing potential for ultra-high-grade, monazite-dominated mineralisation and ionic clay-hosted type rocks.
A further 437 samples are at the laboratory awaiting assay.
Gold Mountain commenced an auger drilling program at approximately 36 targets within the Down Under tenements In July.
New licences
A total of 41 licences were applied for at Ronaldinho during the period over an area of 803 sq km.
An interpretation of structure using magnetic data and existing mapping was completed, with a preliminary interpretation of the geomorphology recognising three surfaces similar to the Down Under region.
During the quarter, Gold Mountain also delivered a presentation to the office of the Mayor of Maracás and was offered support for its exploration activities.
Lithium results
Results received from the Bananal Valley and Agua Boa tenements within the Salinas II lithium project were “very encouraging,” with high-order anomalies identified on both tenements.
Two samples from Bananal Valley returned peak values of 672ppm lithium adjacent to two pegmatites previously mapped by the company, although they cannot be put into context until all results have been received.
Assays from Agua Boa confirmed high-order lithium and multi-element lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pathfinder anomalies.
A farm-in agreement was executed with Alderan Resources (ASX: AL8) during the period, which will allow Gold Mountain to retain a minimum 10% carried interest in Salitre until a decision to mine.
Iguatu sampling
First pass stream sediment sampling was completed at the Iguatu and Iguatu North tenements around known iron occurrences and magnetic anomalies interpreted from regional-scale magnetic data.
The results identified significant multi-element anomalies for iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) and LCT at both projects.
PNG projects
In May, Gold Mountain unearthed the potential for at least three porphyry copper-gold systems at its Wabag project in PNG.
Mongae Creek was identified as a high-priority target and 3D geochemical modelling will be used to define the depth of drilling required.
A new target area was also identified at Mamba Creek to the north of Crown Ridge in an area with a significant copper-zinc anomaly and a major north-trending fault zone.
Additional targets, which may have significant skarn and epithermal systems, have also been interpreted to exist at Sak Creek / K-Lam, Mt Wipi and Lombokai.
New interpretations
Drill targets will be defined based on new and upgraded interpretations of the historical data and from the relogging of existing core.
Gold Mountain has appointed a porphyry and epithermal expert to manage the technical aspects of exploration at Wabag and ensure a rigorous approach to field work activities.
Budgeting of the first phase of follow-up work at Mamba Creek has been completed, with field work expected to commence in the new financial year.