Taiton Resources launches search for new mineral discoveries at Challenger West

Taiton Resources starts soil sampling to hunt for gold and other minerals at Challenger West
Project is close to the 1Moz Challenger Gold deposit
Company has identified a new view on relationship between historical geochemistry and observed structural interpretation

Special Report: Taiton Resources has started a reconnaissance Ultrafine soil sampling program at its Challenger West project to uncover new mineral deposits in a region known for its significant gold resources.

The Challenger West project in South Australia is about 135km southwest of Coober Pedy and is between 10km and 40km from the 1Moz Challenger Gold deposit.

Taiton Resources (ASX:T88) previously reprocessed existing gravity data at the project, which is accessible from the Commonwealth Hill road and close to the Commonwealth Hill airport.

This work had identified three high priority areas that will be tested by the Ultrafine soil sampling program.

Unlocking gold potential

The soil sampling program is designed as first pass assessment of the ground and the potential effectiveness of the UF method.

It will seek primarily to test for gold mineralisation though a full assay suite analysis will be carried out on the samples offering the potential for additional commodities to be found.

Sampling is expected to take about two weeks to complete with results expected in a further four to six weeks.

Target zones

Area 1 covers north-northeast trending features that are defined by discrete magnetic anomalism.

It was primarily defined from interpretation of reprocessed open file aeromagnetic data and has limited historical surface sampling consisting of sporadic calcrete, lag, and rock samples.

Area 2 covers a northeast trending shear interpreted from geophysical data and includes historical calcrete sampling that identified low level gold and copper anomalism.

The gold anomaly is coincident with a possible short range (<1km) splay based on the magnetic interpretation.

Area 3 sits over interpreted north-northeast trending anomalism. It covers an interpreted banded iron formation.

Managing director Noel Ong said the company’s board had always held the view that Challenger West has the potential to host another Challenger Gold mine, which was discovered in 1995.

“Two decades have gone by and the mystery of a single gold mine, a single economical mineral deposit, that sits alone over an area that is 200km from the nearest “subeconomical deposit” remains the narrative,” he added.

Besides looking to solver this mystery, the company will also look to discover the potential for uranium, rare earths and base metals.

“The Challenger West targets generated by the Taiton exploration team has been well researched and considered the efforts of past explorers,” Ong added.

“Traditionally, the search for a Challenger-type deposit has met a degree of complexity in understanding the potential controlling structures in the past.

“Management confidence in our maiden exploration program comes from the fact that our team have identified a new view on the relationship between the historical geochemistry and the observed structural interpretation in helping to identify potential mineralisation and depositional traps.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Taiton Resources, 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.