Zenith Minerals is toasting the rapid acceleration of work by its JV partner Rumble Resources on the exciting Chinook zinc-lead discovery in WA’s Earaheedy Basin.

Zenith (ASX:ZNC) is in an enviable position with Chinook, holding a free carried interest of 25% in what has emerged as a potential world class zinc-lead discovery.

Majority partner Rumble has made the decision to ramp up its exploration efforts, increasing its 30,000m drill drive by 30% by taking it out to 40,000m with just half of the initial program complete.

Drilling will continue to focus on the main 3km by 1.8km Chinook discovery zone, but will also be extended to test the Magazine/Navajoh targets some 8-10km southeast and along strike.

Rumble has also set up shop for the long haul at the project, where four drill rigs are turning, with a mobile camp established to host a growing crew of eight geologists and 13 field technicians.

The pace of expansion has been rapid given the discovery holes (34m at 4.22% Zn-Pb & 21m at 4.31% Zn-Pb) were announced just four months ago.

With just four of the 88 RC holes drilled to date assayed, there is plenty of news flow still to come from the highly-anticipated campaign.

“We are very pleased that the drill program has now been expanded to 40,000m of drilling up from the initial 30,000m planned,” Zenith chairman Peter Bird said.

“The increased drill program will continue to focus on the boundary limits of the major Chinook Deposit discovery which has a current defined surface projected area of 3.0km x 1.8km.

“In addition to this initiative the increase in drilling will now push down towards the Magazine and Navajoh Prospects located some 10km to the southeast within the EJV.

“Rumble has done an excellent job in ramping up activity on site and we look forward to being able to report on new results soon.”

Earaheedy deal helps Zenith get down to business

Zenith is free-carried until the completion of a bankable feasibility study at the Earaheedy project, so it can enjoy the fruits of exploration success there while focusing its attention on other priority projects.

These include the Red Mountain and Split Rocks gold projects, as well the Develin Creek VMS copper project in Queensland.

Zenith raised $6 million in July to fund exploration across these sites.

But it has even more exposure to the Earaheedy basin with a major 100% owned land position in the district covering some 100 lineal kilometres of favourable stratigraphy.

Since the initial find at Chinook was made there has been an increase of some 125% in the zinc-lead mineralised footprint at the Earaheedy project, with the scale of the discovery only just beginning to emerge.

Rumble has a shallow conceptual exploration target across some 45km of strike at the broader Earaheedy project of 100-120 million tonnes at 3.5-4.5% zinc-lead mineralisation, a scale that would measure up to some of the largest zinc-lead deposits in the world.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Zenith 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.