Tambourah Metals has begun an airborne magneto-telluric survey across its recently granted Yerecoin prospect where the company is targeting nickel, copper and platinum group elements 120km north-east of Perth.
The prospect sits within the Jimperding metaphoric belt that hosts ultramafic rocks that are prospective for nickel mineralisation close to Chalice Mining’s revered Gonneville discovery.
The survey will also investigate multiple magnetic targets identified at Tambourah’s Bolgart and Wongan Hill South prospects across a strike length of about 80km that stretches from the town of Wongan Hills to south of Goomalling.
Geoscience Australia defines a magneto-telluric survey as a passive geophysical method that uses natural time variations of the Earth’s magnetic and electric fields to measure the electrical resistivity of the sub-surface. Tambourah says resistivity anomalism is a potential indicator of the presence of sulphides.
The explorer has contracted survey company Expert Geophysics to commence a proprietary helicopter-based magneto-telluric survey across the prospects that form the greater Julimar North project.
Yerecoin sits about 10km east of Caspin Resources’ Yarawindah Brook discovery where historical drilling returned multiple platinum and palladium intercepts along some 2km of strike. Previous hits at Yarawindah Brook include 11m at 1.78 g/t palladium and 0.56 g/t platinum and 26m at 0.69 g/t palladium and 0.31 g/t platinum.
In January Tambourah identified multiple airborne gravity anomalies indicative of denser rocks that may host nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation at its Bolgart and Tolarno projects approximately 100 kilometres northeast of Perth.
This was followed up in February when the explorer highlighted 17 priority targets in its battery metals search after a detailed data analysis of the Wongan Hills South project using available geophysics and the project’s database.
The company’s greater Julimar North nickel, copper and platinum project takes in a massive 1140 square kilometres near Chalice’s renowned Gonneville discovery. Chalice has a deposit of 330 million tonnes at 0.94 grams per tonne palladium, platinum and gold, 0.16 per cent nickel, 0.10 per cent copper and 0.016 per cent cobalt.
The in ground resources at Gonneville stand at 10m ounces of palladium, platinum and gold, 530,000 tonnes of nickel, 330,000 tonnes of copper and 53,000 tonnes of cobalt.
Tambourah’s Wongan Hills South targets are within a 5km radius of Caravel Minerals’ namesake copper project where 1.86 million tonnes of contained copper has been identified. Historical exploration at Wongan Hills South was primarily focused on Boddington and Griffin Finds style gold mineralisation, with other metals such as copper, nickel and PGEs largely overlooked.
The company expects to receive the survey results in about six weeks including a geophysical interpretation of the data.
With a number of significant nearby deposits, Tambourah is certainly in the right postcode for potential nickel, copper and platinum group elements mineralisation. The survey results should further define additional targets for the company as it moves into the next phase of exploration.
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