Western Yilgarn’s new Julimar West project is just 2.5km from Chalice’s Gonneville discovery. Pic: via Getty Images.
Living next door to Chalice: Western Yilgarn’s Julimar West project is about to be explored for the first time
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- Western Yilgarn secures highly prospective and sought after Julimar West exploration licence
- Julimar West is just 2.5km from Chalice Mining’s Gonneville nickel-copper-PGE find
- Heli-borne EM surveying will be carried out to define disseminated massive sulphide targets
Special Report: Finally, Western Yilgarn has its highly sought-after exploration licence at Julimar West, just 2.5km from Chalice Mining’s world-class Gonneville nickel-copper-PGE discovery in WA.
The Gonneville discovery in March 2020 at Julimar was one of the most exciting in recent years, leading to a pegging rush by explorers looking to cash in on nearology.
However, efforts to find the next Gonneville, which has a contained resources of 16Moz of platinum+palladium+gold, 860,000t nickel, 520,000t copper and 83,000t cobalt, have proven futile to date.
Julimar West might just change that equation as Western Yilgarn’s (ASX:WYX) application for the project in 2018 actually predates Chalice’s discovery of Gonneville.
While award of tenement ELA 70/5111 was delayed thanks to a quirk of government policy called a File Notation Area (FNA), it has meant that Chalice’s exploration successes have actually ensured that its prospectivity is now unquestioned.
This is exemplified by all four prospects at Julimar — Dampier, Hooley, Hartog and the main Gonneville resource — being open along strike west toward tenement ELA 70/5111, leading Chalice and Caspin Resources to make applications over the project area.
These competing applications have now been voided by the award of the 348.7km2 exploration tenement, which has seen little to no modern exploration, to WYX.
Exploration to begin soon
The five-year grant from the soon to be renamed Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) enables WYX to commence planned exploration over Julimar West.
WYX intends to initially carry out a helicopter borne electromagnetic survey to define disseminated massive sulphide targets to over 500m vertical depth that could represent extensions and repetitions of Gonneville mineralisation.
Heli-borne EM surveying has been successfully used by Chalice to highlight the Gonneville intrusion.
“The highly anticipated granting of Julimar West E70/5111 marks a pivotal moment in Western Yilgarn’s journey towards developing a successful exploration company,” chairman Peter Lewis said.
“Our projects located within the highly prospective Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia are attracting significant interest from several major mining operations.
“The 100% owned Julimar West exploration licence is a strategic asset which together with the company’s Bulga, Boodanoo and Sylvania Projects positions the company as a fast growing exploration company in one of Australia’s most prospective exploration regions.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Western Yilgarn, 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.
