Tambourah Metals to probe high-grade gold targets at Cheela Project in WA
Junior explorer Tambourah Metals (ASX: TMB) is set to commence an aircore drilling campaign next week at the Cheela gold project in Western Australia’s Ashburton region.
The work is designed to confirm and extend historic high-grade intersections reported by previous owners Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST).
These include 16 metres at 4.75 grams per tonne gold from 88m; 8m at 8.59g/t gold from 88m, 11m at 4.17g/t gold from 34m and 4m at 8.42g/t gold from 36m.
Tambourah said a drill rig was being mobilised to the project site, approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Paraburdoo.
Nanjilgardy location
The Cheela gold project comprises two granted exploration licences over approximately 381.58 square kilometres of acreage on the Mindle Shear and crustal scale Nanjilgardy Fault.
Nanjilgardy is a major northwest-trending system believed to be the structural conduit for gold mineralisation at three nearby discoveries.
They are the 1.1 million ounce Paulsens operation and Electric Dingo prospect (owned by Black Cat Syndicate, ASX: BC8); the 1.7Moz Mt Olympus deposit (Kalamazoo Resources, ASX: KZR); and the Karlawinda project (Capricorn Metals, ASX: CMM).
Paulsens is hosted by folded metasediments of the Fortescue Group, while Mt Olympus is hosted by metasediments of the lower Wyloo Group.
Karlawinda is one of Australia’s lowest cost gold producers with a resource of 2.2Moz.
Historic exploration at Cheela defined significant gold mineralisation over a strike distance of approximately 2.5km however there have been no follow-up drilling activities since 2011.
High-priority targets
Previous drilling and field reconnaissance at Cheela identified high-priority targets for gold mineralisation.
Tambourah has said that the focus of the new drilling campaign will be on sampling and drilling the magnetic highs within these targets which have limited drill coverage.
The company will test prospective zones along the 200m corridor of the Nanjilgardy Fault, with targets including Cheela North and North Dingo.
Tambourah recently completed a heritage survey at Cheela with the local Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura aboriginal group.