Gold explorer Castle Minerals this week expanded its Pilbara footprint — but the news failed to generate the same kind of investor excitement that pushed its share price up last month.
Castle (ASX:CDT) fell 12 per cent to 5.2c on Tuesday after announcing it would buy an exploration licence application for a 79 sq km area at Beasley Creek in the West Pilbara region.
The project includes 16 km strike of prospective Hardey Formation, including 2km of Hardey conglomerate mapped by the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA).
Hardey is a volcanic rock formation in the Pilbara’s Fortescue Basin which is known to host gold as well as copper, zinc and uranium.
Castle’s managing director Stephen Stone said historical gold workings and conglomerate boulders in spoil heaps indicated excellent prospects for Witswatersrand-style conglomerate hosted gold.
Witwatersrand refers to the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa — a geological formation that houses the world’s biggest known gold reserves, producing 2 billion ounces or about half of gold ever mined.
Castle is buying the licence application from prospector Bob Creasy, the brother of renowned investor and prospector Mark Creasy.
The news comes after Castle bought two applications from Mr Creasy in the Coolyia Creek project, 40km southwest of Marble Bar in the East Pilbara region.
“This acquisition continues Castle’s strategy to refocus on acquiring a stable of quality, early-stage West Australian projects offering accelerated value appreciation, with other deals also under consideration, Mr Stone said.
Castle has a market cap of about $11 million.