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Peak excitement as Red Mountain looks to scale new heights
Mining
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Red Mountain Mining is preparing itself for a potentially transformational quarter, with exploration and drilling for gold, rare earth elements and nickel-copper-PGE sulphides in WA.
Red Mountain’s (ASX:RMX) new investor presentation hit the ASX this morning, highlighting the immense potential of the junior explorer’s portfolio, with particular focus on the Mt Maitland and Mt Mansbridge projects.
At Mt Maitland, the company holds a gold and base metals project along 19km of the highly prospective Archeon greenstone belt, where historic production averaged 19 grams per tonne gold.
Shallow RC drilling in November last year returned one assay of 7m at 3.3 grams per tonne gold at the Maitland South prospect, and geophysics earlier in 2021 yielded deeper, promising IP anomalies.
The Jacia prospect has been identified as prospective for VHMS-style mineralisation, with rock chipping from historical workings returning values up to 1.94g/t gold, 7.4% copper, 0.96% zinc and 58.6g/t silver.
Limited historical exploration drilling has been carried out at Mt Maitland, which is located within 50km of major gold operations in the region – see the map below.
It’s not hard to see why RMX is keen to get to know this project a little better, and the company has rigs onsite at the moment to do just that.
These rigs are carrying out a follow-up program of two diamond holes testing deeper IP anomalies beneath last year’s drilling, as well as historic base metal mineralisation. The rig will test both the Maitland South and Jacia prospects.
A rare proposition
Red Mountain’s project playbook also includes the highly exciting Mt Mansbridge project in the East Kimberley region – prospective for both heavy rare earth elements (HREE) and nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE mineralisation.
The companies recently agreed to site access over its three, 100% owned tenements at Mt Mansbridge, with exploration to begin this month and drill testing also planned.
The project sits around 40km from Northern Minerals’ (ASX:NTU) Browns Range HREE operation, on a comparable geological setting spanning 33km of prospective unconformity.
Known xenotime and dysprosium occur at Mt Mansbridge, originally discovered by BHP in the 1980s.
Three priority areas have been identified from historical exploration datasets – the Killi-Killi, Vader and Kylo prospects.
A REE soil anomaly was identified at Killi-Killi by previous explorers and associated with the prospective unconformity between the overlying Gardiner Sandstone and Killi-Killi basement. Xenotime occurrences and radiometric anomalism are also present in the area.
Vader is home to a coincident yttrium-lanthanum-cerium anomaly identified in the past by Quantum Resources. The anomaly is associated with the prospective unconformity between the overlying Pargee Sandstone and the Killi-Killi formation underlying it.
At Kylo, a xenotime mineral occurrence was validated by Northern Minerals via a single rock chip, with no follow-up exploration carried out. Highly anomalous yttrium and dysprosium has also been identified.
Surface geochemical, rock chipping and mapping programs are expected to begin shortly, with a focus on the three HREE prospects.
Mt Mansbridge is also home to two nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE prospects – Deja Vu and Cow Creek.
Deja Vu is prospective for mafic-ultramafic intrusion-related massive sulphides, with geological similarities to the Savannah/Sally Malay intrusive complex in the East Kimberley.
Historical drilling here identified prospective geology, nickel-copper sulphides and anomalous cobalt – highly exciting signs for a project of this ilk.
EM surveys are scheduled this month.
Koonenberry calls
RMX is also in the process of securing a significant footprint in the emerging gold region of Koonenberry in New South Wales.
Tenement applications cover around 657km2 in a geological setting considered analogous to the prolific Victorian Goldfields.
The tenure strategically adjoins that on Manhattan Corporation’s (ASX:MHC) recent high-grade gold discovery in the region, and RMX believes the combination of a high number of historic workings with no primary source of alluvial gold represents an opportunity for major discovery.
With so much on its plate in the months to come, there will be plenty of eyes on the progress Red Mountain makes across an intriguing project playbook.
This article was developed in collaboration with Red Mountain Mining, 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.
