Resolution Minerals reports Benmara drilling a success, interest from several majors
Resolution managing director Duncan Chessell says the next step for Benmara will be to follow up along strike and vector towards mineralisation.
Resolution Minerals (ASX: RML) says a 15-hole drilling program at its Benmara battery metals and uranium project in the Northern Territory has successfully intersected the targeted zones.
The drilling program returned elevated lead, zinc and silver values, along with copper.
These geological units are equivalent to those that host the McArthur River lead-zinc mine (owned by Glencore), Lady Loretta, Walford Creek and Century deposits, the company says.
The 2,230sq km Benmara project lies along strike from the Walford Creek deposit, owned by Aeon Metals (ASX: AML) which has a mineral resource estimate of 40 million tonnes at 2% copper-equivalent and is located on the Fish River fault.
Resolution says assay results at Benmara also confirm anomalous iron and manganese carbonate alternation along with elevated thallium (a toxic metal once used in rat poisons and insecticides).
These elements also occur as a characteristic halo at McArthur, Lady Loretta and Century.
‘Positive’ interest from several majors, mid-tier company.
“Resolution is excited to be early movers in the region and [has] received positive interest from several majors and mid-tiers regarding the project,” the company says.
It added that its regional neighbours include BHP (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG), South32 (ASX: S32), OZ Minerals (ASX: OZL) and Canada’s Teck.
Resolution managing director Duncan Chessell said the drilling program has taken the company one step further “on the journey to a potential major discovery”.
“The Benmara project is an exciting large-scale potential greenfields sediment-hosted battery metals project in one of the last few sedimentary basins in Australia to be explored.”
Busy year ahead exploring Benmara
The next step will be to follow up these geological units defined in the maiden drilling program.
“2022 will be a very busy and exciting time for Resolution,” Mr Chessell said.
Lead-zinc-silver at elevated levels were encountered during drilling up to 198.5 parts per million lead, 357ppm zinc as well as 307ppm copper and 0.65ppm silver.
The company’s announcement described the outcome as “fantastic” given that the conductive sedimentary units lie beneath a blanket of black clay and cover which negated the use of surface geochemical techniques.
“It’s only through modern geophysics that targets like this are identified,” it added.
Earlier this year Resolution completed a geophysical survey over the central zone of the tenement, targeting the basin margin where prospective onlapping sediments from the South Nicholson that abut the Murphy Inlier.