De Grey puts foot on Pilbara patch that gave up this 1.3kg gold nugget

Gold explorer De Grey Mining has put its foot on a patch of the Pilbara where a huge gold nugget weighing 1.3kg was recently found.

De Grey (ASX:DEG) secured an option to acquire 80 per cent of six tenements covering 30 sq km in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The tenements, which are considered highly prospective for high-grade gold discoveries, lie adjacent to De Grey’s ground and within 20 km of a proposed plant at its Pilbara gold project.

The Pilbara in north western Australia is undergoing a gold nugget rush as a swag of junior exploration companies — and individuals — head to the region to search for gold nuggets.

Last week De Grey shares jumped as much as 133 per cent after it showed off 91 nuggets found at a new gold target called Loudens Patch.

Since then a number of Pilbara-focused gold explorers have jumped in price.

De Grey told investors the land’s previous owner had found a number of gold nuggets using a metal detector — including a huge 15cm nugget weighing in at 1.3kg.

De Grey doesn’t own any of those nuggets — and cautioned investors that it could not verify the previous owner’s exploration results.

De Grey will pay $30,000 cash and 150,000 De Grey shares on signing. The option period is for four years during which De Grey will fund exploration. De Grey can acquire 80 per cent of the tenement for $500,000 cash.

The company recently reported a significant resource upgrade to 1.2 million ounces of gold at its Pilbara project.

A 15cm, 1.3kg nugget found by the previous owner of De Grey’s new Pilbara plot

De Grey shares fell 1c to 21c on Tuesday.

But since the start of September, the shares have soared almost 250 per cent — up from 6.4c.

Elsewhere in the Pilbara, explorer Marindi Metals (ASX:MZN) today reported potential for conglomerate-hosted gold at its Newman base metal project in the southern part of the region.

“The recent Pilbara gold exploration success by Novo Resources Group and Artemis Resources has led to a new appreciation of the potential of Archaean conglomerates to host gold mineralisation,” Marindi told the market.

“Marindi has conducted a review of its extensive tenement holdings in the Pilbara and reports members of Fortescue Group — a geology in which the recent conglomerate hosted gold discoveries occur — have been mapped over a strike length of at least 60 km and may extend up to 100 km across Marindi’s tenement holdings.”

Marindi will conduct initial mapping, sampling and prospecting of the area.

This work will take place in parallel with a drilling program at Newman base metal project to begin this month.

Marindi closed up 11 per cent at 1c.