Litchfield jags rich silver hit as NT drill campaign wraps up
Brought to you by Bulls and Bears
Doug Bright
Litchfield Minerals has kicked off its latest drilling campaign at its Oonagalabi project near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, identifying 11 reverse circulation (RC) holes of 1791 meters and three diamond holes of 1214 meters as the company’s main targets.
The completed drilling program moved beyond the main Oonagalabi prospect to test extensions to the intriguing Bomb-Diggity target. The drill bit also pointed to a number of priority electromagnetic conductors, magnetic anomalies, and induced polarization (IP) targets elsewhere in the apartment.
All samples have been sent for analysis and results are expected in May.
Litchfield had a remarkable and steady increase in work throughout the field season. Despite experiencing access challenges as it battled wet weather in mid-March, the company says it still managed to keep its rigs running and install new drill pads.
‘We see Silver Valley as an attractive opportunity within our portfolio in the near term.’
Litchfield Minerals general manager Matthew Pustahya
It’s worth pausing to appreciate the challenging and unpredictable conditions field teams may face, where progress can quickly be derailed by forces beyond anyone’s control. In this case, the company initially struggled with severe weather, but a month later was hit by the wider impacts of severe tropical cyclone Narelle, the latest cyclone to trouble WA.
Narelle crossed the WA coast near Coral Bay as a Category 3 system on Saturday morning (March 27), bringing winds of up to 250km/h, damaging homes and causing power outages in the North West Cape and Gascoyne region. Excessive damage was also reported around Exmouth and Coral Bay, with heavy rainfall covering the Gascoyne and Pilbara regions.
The result of this barrage from the weather gods was that the Litchfield team had been in the bush continuously since the beginning of January, yet managed to deliver the entire drilling program under challenging conditions.
The company has also strengthened its geology with the appointment of senior exploration geologist Matt McGloin.
Litchfield commenced a new RC drilling phase in early April to investigate priority geophysical conductors and chargeability anomalies at the VT1 and VT2 targets, alongside other step drilling in the Core Zone.
While the market is currently awaiting the laboratory’s decision on Oonagalabi drilling samples, the company has also delivered an eye-catching photo of potential metals from its Silver Valley project, 300km north of Oonagalabi.
Exploration rock samples collected from mineralization related to the quartz vein in the Silver Valley lease in March revealed striking numbers.
These included 378 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 0.91 g/t gold, 5.04 per cent copper and 44.9 per cent lead from one sample, while a second rock chip yielded 128 g/t silver and 16.1 per cent lead.
Litchfield Minerals managing director Matthew Pustahya said: “These results are exactly the same as those we expected to see in our first pass exploration at Silver Valley. The results of this grade, including 378 g/t silver and 44.9% lead, confirm that the system parts are truly high quality and reinforce our view that there is potential for a large, mineralized vein system.”
The company believes that the high-grade surface strikes at Silver Valley may be associated with a broader vein system, noting extensive local quartz development and visible sulphides, all of which lie within the historical background of high-grade production.
The results and general setting support Litchfield’s view that the well-preserved mineralized system may extend into depth and also beneath shallow surface cover.
Litchfield plans to incorporate upcoming Oonagalabi analyzes into geological and geophysical datasets to enhance regional targeting and lock in a new, highest-confidence drilling plan for individual targets.
The company plans to conduct further field work in Silver Valley in May to map vein trends and geometry using IP geophysics to detect subsurface base metal sulfides and associated silver mineralization.
The company also plans to shortly announce details of its participation in the BHP The description is expected to include the specific workflows being developed and the strategic logic supporting them.
With the BHP
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