Impact Minerals kicks off 2022 exploration program in NSW and WA
Impact Minerals says extensive follow up drilling is required at Little Broken Hill Gabbro.
A ground survey in NSW and drilling in Western Australia are under way as Perth-based Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) gets going on its 2022 exploration program.
A ground electromagnetic survey has begun at the Broken Hill nickel-copper-platinum group elements targets, where IGO Limited (ASX: IGO) is earning a 75% stake.
Meanwhile, Impact’s maiden drill program at its 80%-owned Doonia gold-copper-bismuth project located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The survey at Broken Hill is being undertaken by IGO.
NSW survey goes ahead despite Covid outbreaks
Impact managing director Mike Jones said IGO had commenced work “under the trying conditions of the Covid-19 breakouts in NSW”.
The EM survey is using a deep penetrating system and is expected to take up to three months to complete.
It has been designed to test the entirety of two tenements for high-grade massive nickel-copper-PGE, including the Moorakai Trend and the Little Broken Hill Gabbro.
The former is 9km-long ultramafic to mafic dyke that, the company says, is very poorly explored.
Drilling by Impact at the southern end previously returned high grades in the Platinum Springs area. There has been no drilling of significance along the rest of the trend.
Last year Impact Minerals conducted the first ever drilling of the 7km-long intrusion at Little Broken Hill Gabbro and identified “numerous” areas of highly anomalous PGEs.
Under the joint venture, IGO can spend $6 million over four years to earn a 51% interest, at which stage the two companies will form an unincorporated joint venture.
IGO can then spend a further $12 million over four years to take its stake to 75%.
Drilling to test gold-bismuth anomaly
Doonia in WA is located 30km west of the recent Burns copper-gold-silver-molybdenum discovery by Lefroy Exploration (ASX: LEX).
The principal target is a 2.5km by 1km gold-bismuth soil geochemistry anomaly, with Impact hunting geology similar to that at Burns.
Dr Jones said some of the targets now being drilled were identified more than 20 years ago and were never followed up.
“It will be interesting see what is hidden at depth … given the similarities to the Burns discovery,” he added.
Both Burns and Doonia were identified by the former WMC Resources in 1999.