Zenith Minerals and Rumble Resources make further zinc-lead discoveries at Earaheedy

One week after announcing the Tonka discovery at the jointly-owned Earaheedy project in Western Australia, partners Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC) and Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) have intersected a major zinc-lead-silver-copper feeder fault zone along with a new mineralised zone at the Navajoh prospect.

The companies today reported results from ongoing scoping drilling at the Chinook prospect, which hit a major feeder fault system with “very significant” zinc-lead-silver mineralisation along with “strong” copper mineralisation below the Chinook mineralisation.

The best assay result was a 37m intersection grading 3.25% zinc-lead and 7.18 grams per tonne silver from 196m, including 10m at 6.57% zinc-lead and 16.24g/t silver from 200m, with an even higher-grade intercept of 1m at 17.1% zinc-lead and 20.9g/t silver from 202m.

Within this broad zone of zinc-lead mineralisation, drilling returned 4m at 1.54% copper with 6.1% zinc-lead and 23.6g/t silver from 204m.

“The discovery of significant copper with silver mineralisation at the top of a major feeder fault system along with high-grade zinc and lead at Chinook highlights the potential for a very large-scale zoned base metal system,” Rumble technical director Brett Keillor said.

The partners also released new results from ongoing reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the western end of Chinook including: 8m at 3.67% zinc-lead and 4.1g/t silver from 74m; 8m at 3.65% zinc-lead and 8.03g/t silver from 128m; and 17m at 2.91% zinc-lead and 2.29g/t silver from 110m.

Chinook’s mineralised footprint is 4.1km along strike and 1.9km down dip and remains open in all directions.

Navajoh prospect

Meanwhile at the Navajoh prospect, located 4km southeast of the recent Tonka discovery, first pass drilling on a single traverse intersected “significant” flat lying, northeast dipping unconformity related zinc-lead-silver sulphide mineralisation similar to the Chinook prospects.

Drilling results comprised 5m at 6.38% zinc-lead and 6.3g/t silver from 123m; 3m at 6.15% zinc-lead and 10.63g/t silver from 132m; and 4m at 4.18% zinc-lead and 3.57g/t silver from 106m.

Mr Keillor said the flat lying regionally extensive unconformity related zinc-lead-silver (manganese) mineralisation that has been delineated at the Chinook, Tonka and now Navajoh prospects represent  the “large outer metal halo zone of a world-class base metal system that lies within the Earaheedy project and underlying geological formations”.

Planned program for 2022

The ongoing drilling program has now been expanded to more than 50,000m, primarily to drill and scope the Tonka discovery zone.

Assay results have been returned for 28,144m of drilling, about 56% of the planned drilling. The final sets of drilling results are expected by February/March.

In 2022, Zenith and Rumble are planning diamond core drilling to further test the major 1.7km long feeder fault zone at Chinook, as well as to confirm structural information and provide further support for the interpretation of large-scale metal zonation within the project area.

Further scoping of the Chinook, Tonka, Magazine and Navajoh discoveries via RC drilling is planned to define the limits of mineralisation and infill within the discovery areas.

In addition, a sonic drilling program will be restarted next year with the material to be utilised in further metallurgical test work. This program will also be used to test all areas of oxide mineralisation.

Zenith chief executive officer Michael Clifford said this discovery of the two new major zones of zinc-lead mineralisation caps off a highly significant period in the history of the Earaheedy project.

“The sheer scale of the mineralised system, as it currently stands at Earaheedy, is hard to comprehend, stretching some 12km in length and up to 1.9km down dip.”

“Although much work is ahead of us, we are very excited as to what the 2022 exploration program will deliver,” he added.