Tambourah Metals identifies up to 5% antimony in Speewah exploration review
Tambourah Metals (ASX: TMB) has confirmed that an ongoing review of historic rock chip sampling data at the Speewah project in Western Australia has identified up to 5% antimony associated with widespread precious and base metal anomalies hosted by extensive epithermal veining within the Speewah Dome.
The project was previously explored by King River Resources (ASX: KRR) with a focus on the same type of mineralisation associated with extensive epithermal vein sets mapped over a 20 kilometre distance.
Antimony and arsenic have since been designated as critical minerals in Australia but were not targeted by King River.
Antimony occurs as an accessory to the polymetallic suite which includes copper, silver, lead, zinc, gold and bismuth and is believed to be characteristic of zoned epithermal mineral systems.
Speewah Dome review
Tambourah’s review was focused on King River’s work at exploration licence E80/5889, which covers an area of 181 square kilometres over the northern half of the Speewah Dome.
The domal structure is comprised of sediments of the Speewah Group intruded by a composite sill of the Hart Dolerite.
The review suggests that antimony results grading more than 1000 parts per million lie within the Catto West prospect and elsewhere within the Speewah Dome and are associated with flat-dipping structures interpreted to be related to thrust-faulting.
The extent and continuity of these structures is unknown and Tambourah is expected to collect samples during a site visit as part of the due diligence process for the proposed acquisition of the Speewah project.
Fluorite discovery
The Speewah Group sediments host the Speewah fluorite discovery owned by Tivan (ASX: TVN) and located 4km south of E80/5889, while the layered gabbroic sill of the Hart Dolerite hosts a deposit reported to contain large amounts of titanium-vanadium-platinum group elements.
Tambourah said infrastructure and development in the Speewah area is likely to increase with the planned development of Tivan’s project, which was recently awarded a $7.4 million development grant under the federal government’s International Partnerships in Critical Minerals program.
The project has attracted Sumitomo Corporation as a strategic partner to potentially acquire a 22.5% interest.