Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Native Mineral Resources (NMR) intersects sulphide mineralisation in the first diamond hole at its Maneater prospect in North Queensland
- NMR says initial assays, which include high-grade gold, silver, lead, copper, antimony and zinc, are “highly encouraging” and show the potential for a polymetallic system
- The company also notes that some of the peak grades are “well above” those recovered from a drill hole completed in 1995
- Native Mineral Resources has since completed a second diamond hole at Maneater and is already planning a third to target the deeper part of the breccia to the north
- Company shares closed grey at 13.5 cents on Monday afternoon
Native Mineral Resources (NMR) has intersected sulphide mineralisation in a diamond hole completed at its Maneater prospect in North Queensland.
The hole intersected massive, semi-massive, and disseminated sulphides for over 370 metres from a 107-metre downhole depth.
Highlighted results from the hole include one metre at 2.14 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 1.7 per cent zinc, 0.5 per cent antimony, 57.1 g/t silver, 0.75 per cent lead and 0.35 per cent copper.
A wider interval from this hole includes 20 metres at 12.2 g/t silver, 292.5 parts per million (ppm) copper, 671.7 ppm lead, 80.4 ppm antimony and 0.27 per cent zinc.
Native Mineral Resources said identifying sulphides in over 370 metres of drill core and the additional confirmation of increasing grade with depth had given it the confidence to continue exploration at the prospect.
“These initial assays from MPD002 at Maneater are highly encouraging and demonstrate the potential scale of the polymetallic system we are targeting,” Managing Director Blake Cannavo said.
“Maximum grades returned from NMR’s first hole at Maneater are all well above, and in cases such as for gold more than 10 times higher than, the assays recovered in MPD001, which was completed in 1995,” Mr Cannavo said.
MPD002 was terminated at a depth of 477.6 metres, which is short of the intended target depth of approximately 700 metres due to technical difficulties. However, the second diamond hole, MPD003, was completed at the start of December to a 543-metre depth.
The company expects to receive assays for MPD003 at the start of next year.
NMR anticipates that the second hole will return further elevated polymetallic grades, and it’s already planning a third hole to target the deeper part of the breccia to the north early in 2023.
Company shares closed grey at 13.5 cents on Monday afternoon.
