Oar Resources commences fieldwork at Crown nickel-copper-PGE project
Oar Resources’ fieldwork will be followed up by soil sampling ahead of a proposed maiden drilling program.
Oar Resources (ASX: OAR) has commenced an initial reconnaissance program at its wholly-owned and underexplored Crown nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) project in Western Australia’s highly-prospective Yilgarn Craton, 70km northeast of Perth.
The fieldwork aims to improve the company’s understanding of the local geology and will include geological mapping and rock chip sampling to test identified magnetic targets.
This will be followed up by systematic geochemical soil sampling to define and refine target areas ahead of a proposed maiden drilling program.
The Crown project contains numerous magnetic features interpreted to represent mafic volcanic rocks and considered to be highly-prospective for nickel-copper-PGE and gold mineralisation.
World-class location
Crown is located approximately 10km west of the Julimar Complex which is host to Chalice Mining’s (ASX: CHN) world-class Julimar polymetallic deposit.
It is also nearby to the large Gonneville nickel-copper-cobalt-gold-PGE greenfields find, which Chalice unearthed in March last year.
Results from drilling at Gonneville included 25m at 3 grams per tonne palladium, 1.4g/t platinum, 0.2g/t gold, 0.3% nickel, 0.3% copper and 0.03% cobalt from surface; and 14m at 4.2g/t palladium, 1.1g/t platinum, 0.2g/t gold, 0.5% nickel, 0.8% copper and 0.03% cobalt from 85m.
A detailed review of Crown’s regional magnetic data by independent consultant Southern Geoscience has identified at least 20 separate target areas worthy of follow-up exploration.
Exploration permit
Oar was granted an exploration permit for the Crown project in June from the mining regulator, kickstarting discussions with local landowners to secure access for planned fieldwork.
The company’s general manager (geology) Tony Greenaway said the “eagerly anticipated” permit would allow exploration to begin.
“We look forward to getting [our] boots on the ground at Crown,” he said.
“[It is an] area which has had little-to-no previous exploration, and significant potential for the discovery of gold and other mineralisation.”