Rumble Resources discovers high-grade tungsten

Rumble Resources has discovered exceptionally high-grade tungsten, a critical mineral, within the Western Queen gold system.
A strong continuous tungsten anomaly outlined over 2km parallels the Western Queen Shear and known high-grade gold mineralisation.
Tungsten occurs at surface between the Western Queen South and Western Queen Central open pits with widths up to 20 metres.

Special Report: Rumble Resources has found an unexpected bonus at its 160koz plus Western Queen Gold Project – very high-grade critical mineral tungsten.

The find comes just two weeks after Rumble (ASX:RTR) announced the discovery of a new parallel high-grade gold system at Western Queen and adds even more impetus to the project’s growth prospects near Mt Magnet in Western Australia.

From within Western Queen’s gold system, one drill hole returned 4m at 4.58% tungsten trioxide (WO₃) and 0.72 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 174.85m. That included 2.05m at 8.71% WO₃ and 1.38 g/t gold from 176.85m, and 0.65m at 18.35% WO₃and 2.97 g/t gold from 176.85m.

Significantly, a review of all the pXRF data has shown tungsten is widespread within the Western Queen gold mineralising system, including at surface between the Western Queen South and Western Queen Central open pits with widths of up to 20 metres.

Managing Director and CEO Peter Harold said: “The discovery of the very high-grade tungsten at Western Queen is an unexpected bonus for us from the recent drilling which was targeting extensions to the high-grade gold lodes.

“While it is very early days, the grades of the intersections are exceptional and well above the grades of other tungsten resources globally.”

Follow-up wet assays for tungsten of selected pulps from reverse circulation and diamond drilling, which formed part of the 2021 mineral resource estimate at Western Queen, have now been submitted and the results will be announced as soon as they’re available.

A review of the pXRF analytical data has shown 87 reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drill (DD) holes completed by Rumble have reported at least 500ppm tungsten (W), also known as wolfram. However, results from pXRF analysers are indicative and may not reflect the true tungsten grade.

“We are now waiting with trepidation for the results from the 2021 drill pulps. This discovery shows the huge optionality of the Rumble tenements and the ability of our highly experienced exploration team to make new discoveries,” Harold said.

Critical and strategic mineral

Tungsten is classified as “critical raw material” and has high levels of both economic importance and supply risk given its various alloys are essential to transport, mining, photovoltaic cells, hydrogen fuel cell durability and more.

The global supply of tungsten (currently 78,000t annually) is highly dependent on China, which produces 81% of the world’s tungsten.

The forecast demand has a compound annual growth rate averaging 3.5%, but some projections are up to 8%.

Growing the resource

In terms of gold alone, the latest drilling results add to Rumble’s previous exploration indicating strong continuity of high-grade gold down-plunge from the Western Queen Central and South deposits, with more testing planned.

Rumble will review and update the mineral resource estimate after this current drilling phase.

Western Queen has historical production of 880,000 tonnes at 7.6g/t gold for 215,000oz. The project, with a current mineral resource of 2.1Mt at 2.42g/t gold for 163,000oz, remains open down plunge and along strike.

The deposits at Western Queen are associated with a major geological zone similar to Spartan Resources’ (ASX:SPR) Never lode, which has a resource of 5.16Mt at 5.74 g/t gold (953,000oz).

The project is in the Yalgoo mineral field, conveniently within a 100km radius of three gold processing mills.

Goldfields zinc potential

At Rumble’s Earaheedy project – one of the world’s largest zinc sulphide discoveries in the past decade – the company is continuing with metallurgical test work and scoping studies.

Preliminary test work on Earaheedy ore has already returned high recoveries and confirmed marketable concentrate grades.

In WA’s Goldfields region, Earaheedy has an existing resource of 94Mt with contained metal of 2.2Mt of zinc, 0.7Mt lead and 12.6Moz silver, as well as potential to be a low unit cost, open-pit mining and processing project.