Norwest Minerals sniffs the next discovery in emerging West Arunta mineral province

Norwest Minerals reports base and precious metals discovery at Dales Gossan
The hot neighbourhood is home to recent niobium and rare earths discoveries
Company planning follow up RC drilling in the near-term

Special Report: Norwest Minerals has reported silver-copper-lead-zinc mineralisation in all seven holes drilled below the Dales Gossan outcrop in WA’s West Arunta, in what could be the region’s next big discovery.

The region is home to discoveries like WA1 Resources’ (ASX:WA1) Luni niobium/rare earths project, and neighbour Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) with its Aileron project.

The company says silver-copper-lead-zinc mineralisation is often associated with volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits, with the company on the hunt for a conceptual target which encompasses a deep VMS system.

Notable intersections include:

16m at 24g/t silver from 71m including 6m at 43g/t from 72m
12m at 28g/t silver from 96m including 5m at 42g/t from 97m
2m at 0.19% copper from 75m
4m at 0.11% copper from 97m
4m at 0.14% copper from 59m
21m at 0.55% lead from 65m including 3m at 1.56% from 75m
25m at 0.81% lead from 92m including 8m at 1.5% from 105m
36m at 1.3% zinc from 60m including 22m at 1.6% from 61m including 1m at 5.1% from 76m
22m at 1.0% zinc from 48m including 11m at 1.3% from 57m; and
5m at 0.07g/t gold from 86m.

“These silver-copper-lead-zinc intersections are truly anomalous and suggest Dales Gossan could be the next major West Arunta mineral discovery,” Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) CEO Charles Schaus said.

Location map of all seven SLRC drill holes projected to surface and listing their anomalous silver-copper-lead-zinc and grade intersections. Pic via NWM

Follow up drilling planned

Dales Gossan is positioned on the northwest-southeast regional ‘Sandman fault’, which extends 9.2km across the project tenement, and so far, the tenor and width of the precious and base metals mineralisation is increasing the deeper NWM drills.

“Wide intervals of the shallow mineralisation are reported in all seven holes with the overall tenor clearly increasing with depth,” Schaus said

“Importantly, the Dales Gossan outcrop is positioned on the regional Sandman fault which is the likely conduit for metal rich hydrothermal fluids originating from a deeper source.”

A follow-up RC drilling program is planned for early 2025 to test down dip and along strike of the new drill intersections.

“In the meantime, Norwest is revisiting all current and historical exploration data associated with the Sandman fault to determine the next steps including additional geophysics and geochemical studies along the fault’s 9.2km strike through the project tenement,” Schaus said.

The company has also commissioned Southern Geoscience Consultants to complete an electromagnetic survey over the Dale’s Gossan area in hopes of identifying conductors that may represent this deeper VMS system.

A detailed review of all historical and recent exploration work conducted along the Sandman fault has begun with the results to be used for exploration planning.

This article was developed in collaboration with Norwest 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.