Trek Metals steps quickly to unlock Christmas Creek’s manganese secrets

• Ground gravity and airborne EM surveys awarded to two contractors, starting within weeks 
• Field crew arrives this week for detailed mapping, rock chipping and channel sampling
• Final gold diamond holes hit 9.3m at 1.95g/t and 0.3m at 34.5g/t in twin drill program 

Special Report: Trek Metals is accelerating follow-up exploration of the outcropping high-grade manganese discovery at its Christmas Creek project in WA’s Kimberley region.

While originally considered prospective for gold and rare earths, recent rock chip sampling uncovered the discovery after returning up to 58% manganese in a new outcrop cluster with a strike of about 750m.

This could not only add another revenue stream but could be a potential game changer if the discovery proves suitable for direct shipping ore.

Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) is clearly keen to find out more and has awarded contracts for ground gravity and airborne electromagnetic surveys to start in the coming weeks.

It will also start additional field mapping, rock chip and channel sampling this week.

“The recent high-grade manganese discovery has justifiably attracted significant investor interest as a result of its exceptional grade and potential scale and significance,” chief executive officer Derek Marshall said. 

“The Trek board believes that this warrants an immediate escalation of field activities, and I’m pleased to have been able to secure two geophysical contractors to commence important geophysical surveys within the next couple of weeks.”

He added that preliminary petrophysical testing of selected high-grade samples confirmed the mineralisation was suitable for detection by gravity and electromagnetic geophysical techniques.

This led to the award of contracts to Atlas Geophysics and NRG Geophysics for ground gravity and airborne EM surveying respectively to rapidly assess the size potential of the discovery.

“We also have a field crew arriving this week to re-commence boots-on-ground exploration, to fully assess the area with outcropping high-grade manganese. 

“Activities will include detailed mapping, additional rock chipping and channel sampling,” he added.

This work will allow TKM to develop a robust drill plan to test the new high-grade manganese discovery.

Gold drilling

Meanwhile, the company received a clear reminder why Christmas Creek is considered prospective for gold with final diamond holes from its 2025 program returning high-grade results.

The two holes were drilled as twins to two previous reverse circulation holes that had returned a top intersection of 10m grading 12.66g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 59m.

Highlight results from the latest holes are:

• 0.3m at 34.5g/t Au from 45.8m, 4.9m at 1.57g/t from 89.1m and 5.3m at 2.12g/t from 96m; and
• 9.3m at 1.95g/t Au from 41.6m, 1.5m at 4.02g/t from 149m and 2.3m at 2.95g/t from 155.2m.

These results provide a high level of detail as to which veins are mineralised and will allow for a fully informed structural interpretation of the diamond drill core to be undertaken.

TKM will carry out a detailed structural review with an expert consultant in the coming weeks to inform the 3D interpretation of the mineralised vein arrays and assist with drill targeting for the next round of exploration drilling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Trek Metals, 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.