Mamba Exploration hits high-grade gold zones in maiden drilling at Calyerup Creek
Drilling is due to restart this week on Mamba’s WA project following drill rig issues and the Christmas break.
Maiden reverse circulation drilling by Mamba Exploration (ASX: M24) at the historic Calyerup Creek project in Western Australia’s Great Southern region has intersected multiple shallow high-grade zones of gold mineralisation.
Seven holes of a 50-hole program which kicked off in December reported significant hits grading more than 0.5 grams per tonne of gold.
Highlights were 15 metres at 2.2g/t gold from 1m including 3m at 3.53g/t; 15m at 2.08g/t gold from 3m including 2m at 9.74g/t; 16m at 1.05g/t gold from 18m including 3m at 2.58g/t; 2m at 2.7g/t gold from surface; and 11m at 1.38g/t gold from 7m.
Mechanical issues with the drill rig and slower-than-expected drilling forced activities to be paused over the Christmas break.
Work is due to restart this week using a smaller rig to allow for completion of the remaining holes.
Soil sampling
Soil sampling has also been carried out at Calyerup Creek to infill an existing dataset and to better define anomalous gold trends stretching over 2,800m.
The program identified significant extensions to the mineralisation with peak results of 2.8g/t gold (2,800 parts per billion gold) from the southern trend and 1.3g/t (1,300ppb gold) from the northern trend.
These trends remain undrilled, and a program of works has been submitted to the mining regulator for 100 additional holes.
The work will commence once maiden drilling has been completed and the results compiled and released.
Positive results
Mamba managing director Mike Dunbar said he is pleased with the positive results to date.
“To intersect consistent and significant widths of high-grade mineralisation from such shallow depths along a strike length of around 140m at the southern prospect is a great result,” he said.
“Our soil sampling work represents less than 5% of the strike potential of the anomalous gold in soil trends and the depth potential remains completely open below around 30m vertically.”
ASX listing
Mamba listed on the ASX in early 2021 following an oversubscribed $7 million initial public offering which funded the acquisition of its mineral exploration assets in the Ashburton, Kimberley, Darling Range and Great Southern regions of WA.
The projects in the Ashburton and Great Southern are prospective for gold while those in the Kimberley and Darling Range are believed to contain base metals such as copper, nickel and manganese.
Mamba’s immediate focus after listing was to systematically explore a number of historic and new gold targets at Calyerup Creek and Darling Range.
The company aims to discover an economic mineral resource with the potential to generate significant value for shareholders.