Does Impact Minerals have a Gonneville lookalike on its hands?

AEM surveys have identified 20 EM conductors with the potential to host significant nickel-copper-PGMs
Arkun is along trend of Chalice Mining’s Gonneville deposit
Exploration targets will be delineated for a maiden drilling program in Q1 2024

Impact Minerals says data from an airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey flown over its Arkun project in southwest WA “significantly increase the potential for the discovery of massive nickel-copper-PGM anomalies”.

After spotting five priority nickel-copper-platinum group metals (PGM) targets at Arkun last month, AEM surveys conducted by Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) has identified 20 moderate-to-strong electromagnetic (EM) conductors.

The EM survey was completed over seven priority areas which cover just 15% of the Arkun project.

Two of the survey areas contain numerous EM conductors that have strong Ni-Cu-PGM soil geochemistry anomalies, including five AEM anomalies at the Three Eagles prospect and a further six at the Starfish complex.

Impact Minerals ASX IPT — Regional magnetic data showing AEM survey areas at Arkun. Pic supplied: (IPT)

“These new conductors at Arkun look very promising and significantly increase the potential for the discovery of massive nickel-copper-PGM sulphides,” Impact MD Dr Mike Jones says.

“What’s particularly exciting is that some conductors have coincident soil geochemistry anomalies.

“However, with many of them still yet to be soil sampled, we are confident of generating more targets for follow-up work, which will include drilling.”

Many other anomalies have yet to be soil sampled, and this work is a priority for the next quarter with a view to start a maiden drill program in Q1 2024.

Impact also has a large, rare earths anomaly to sink its teeth into.

In June, the explorer uncovered a large REE soil geochemistry anomaly called Horseshoe about 10km long and up to 2,000m wide.

“With the recent REE soil anomalies identified throughout the project area, including the standout Horseshoe prospect, Arkun continues to emerge as a major project for a wide range of essential battery and strategic minerals,” Jones says.

A Gonneville lookalike

Arkun is along trend from Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) Gonneville Ni-Cu-PGM deposit on the western edge of the Yilgarn Craton and around ground held by major miner Anglo American.

At Three Eagles, one prominent conductor is evident and coincides with strong magnetic linear units that may be mafic rocks in the northeastern end of the survey line, which Impact says has a similar size and strength to a survey line that Chalice found at Gonneville.

Chalice’s success at Gonneville is underpinned by targeting both nickel and its PGE-heavy mineralisation including palladium which the company believes will provide 55% of revenue.

Palladium is used in EV fuel cells and is a reactive element that can combine with a number of non-metallics including phosphorous, sulfur, selenium, arsenic, antimony and silicon.

Impact is eager to see if its tenements – which are along trend of Gonneville’s deposit – hold something similar. So far, so good.

What’s next?

Follow-up fieldwork and rock chip sampling is commencing next month, together with infill and additional soil geochemical surveys, with an aim to delineate drill targets for a maiden drilling program at Arkun set for Q1 2024.

This will include targeting areas of REE mineralisation identified back in June, as well as lithium pegmatites that were identified last year.

PFS at Lake Hope flagship due early 2024

Meanwhile, Impact is progressing at its Lake Hope high-purity aluminium project which has maiden resource of 3.5Mt @ 25.1% alumina (Al2O3) for a contained 880,000t of alumina.

The HPA market is rapidly expanding because of its use in coatings for lithium batteries and current prices for benchmark 4N HPA (99.99% Al2O3) and its related products sit around the US$20,000/t mark.

The explorer has plans to release a pre-feasibility study early next year.

This article was developed in collaboration with Impact Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.