Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is pleased to announce first pass drilling results from the Yarmany project area located 25km northwest of Coolgardie and 65km west of Kalgoorlie – Boulder in Western Australia.
Commenting on the first pass results at Yarmany, Horizon Managing Director Mr Jon Price said:
“While the Company remains focussed on growing our gold business, these first pass results have highlighted the potential for the discovery of new base and energy metals deposits as well as gold in a relatively unexplored region in the Goldfields.”
“The Company has over 50km of the highly prospective Mt Ida fault at Yarmany and we look forward to the release of further results and the commencement of the large-scale multi-commodity exploration program in coming months.”
The drilling forms part of the CY21 and CY22 programs testing new discovery targets for multiple commodities across the 1,100km2 portfolio with a focus on the Yarmany, Greater Boorara and Lakewood project area. Since the granting of the main Yarmany tenements in 2020, the Company has completed extensive geophysical / geochemistry, soil and rock chip sampling and field reconnaissance that identified prospectivity for multiple commodities with all assays being analysed for gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, copper, lead, zinc and PGEs.
RC Drilling and Gold Exploration Summary
The Yarmany drilling campaign was the Company’s first program at this underexplored project. The drilling was completed in two phases, namely reverse circulation (RC) and Air Core drilling. Air Core drilling is typically used as a lower cost alternative to RC drilling, especially during the early exploration stage while covering a larger testing area. It is, however, often limited to drilling within the softer, more weathered rocks. A total of 47 RC holes for 4,413m and 72 Air Core holes for 2,617m were completed.
Two small historic prospects along the Reptile shear, that had reported high grade gold mineralisation (up to 14.5g/t Au), were tested by six RC holes with no significant results. Better results were achieved in areas where there was only minimal historic RAB drilling.
The best Reptile shear results obtained to date was in a quartz stockwork zone where 19 scout RC holes discovered at least two new gold systems (Figure 2*). Significant results included:
o 2m @ 4.95g/t Au from 86m (YMRC21044)
o 2m @ 3.58g/t Au from 66m and 2m @ 1.25g/t Au from 78m (YMRC21040)
o 1m @ 1.27g/t Au from 54m and 2m @ 1.41g/t Au from 59m (YMRC21043)
o 2m @ 1.33g/t Au from 63m (YMRC21041)
o 1m @ 1.81g/t Au from 111m (YMRC21015)
A further 1km to the south-east, another emerging prospect at Wotan included:
o 1m @ 1.61g/t Au from 48m (YMRC21009)
o 1m @ 1.81g/t Au from 111m (YMRC21015, note bottom of hole terminated at 114m assayed 0.34g/t Au)
Typically, the oxide weathering profile around the Reptile shear has a variable depth but extended to over 100m in depth in some areas.
Further encouraging gold mineralisation was observed at the Big Red prospect where historic auger sampling had outlined a 3.5km x 2km soil anomaly with a peak value of 75ppb Au with 6,500m of RAB drilling delineated six anomalous areas that recorded bottom of the hole results >1.0g/t Au.
Four diamond drillholes that followed up the better prospects returned modest levels of gold (best result 12BRDDH004 1.1m @ 2.56g/t Au from 56.9m).
Horizon drilled five RC holes into the main “Big Red prospect area” where old drill spoils showed strong alteration and pyrite mineralisation. Better results included:
o 1m @ 2.91g/t Au from 39m, 2m @ 2.94g/t Au from 82m and 2m @ 2.37g/t Au from 86m (YMRC21019)
o 6m @ 1.14g/t Au from 66m (YMRC21021, note bottom of hole assay was 1.69g/t Au from 71m-72m).
These results are highly encouraging and provide a solid lead in progressing Big Red.
During routine logging at Big Red, it was noted that there were some trace occurrences of sphalerite (Zn) and possibly galena (Pb) in the fresh chips. As a result, all composite samples were then tested for multi-element analysis with YMRC21022 returning 4m @ 5.2g/t Ag, 498ppm Pb and 202ppm Zn from 20m. These results were all 5-10x higher than the background values and within a clay zone. No other assays here registered anomalous levels. The four single samples from YMRC21022 20m-24m have since been collected and submitted to a laboratory to verify the composite result.
Nickel and Lithium Exploration Summary
The Air Core program comprised 72 shallow holes and was drilled along existing tracks. The drilling was designed to test some magnetic highs for nickel and follow up on the pegmatite outcrops observed in October 2021.
Drilling across the many magnetic highs (mapped by the GSWA as being an ultramafic rock) outlined a regolith with anomalous Ni-Cr-Co and sometimes Cu, geochemistry consistent with nickel laterite mineralisation that typically occur over ultramafic rocks in Western Australia. Bulked results from the Air Core drilling include:
o 27m @ 0.42% Ni and 299ppm Co from 4m including 4m @ 0.71% Ni and 767ppm Co from 20m and 3m @ 0.58% Ni and 412ppm Co from 28m (YMAC21007)
o 16m @ 0.33% Ni and 344ppm Co from 4m (YMAC21011)
o 30m @ 0.26% Ni and 130ppm Co from surface including 2m @ 0.67% Ni and 136ppm Co from 28m (YMAC21006)
The results confirm the nickel prospectivity of this 1.6km long magnetic ultramafic unit (talc-chlorite schist). Although there are low grade laterites and clays in the Yarmany regolith, Horizon is focussed on locating nickel sulphides that could be located beneath this laterite mineralisation. Horizon notes there is very little historic, or recent drilling, targeting nickel sulphides along this or any of the other mapped ultramafics of magnetic highs within the 50km long tenure.
The bulk of the Air Core drilling was directed to locating and testing pegmatites, in particular lithium rich pegmatites. Lithium pegmatites have been well documented in this region with several nearby companies progressing their projects (refer to Red Dirt Metal Limited, Ora Band Mining Limited and Wildcat Resources Limited websites). Access around Yarmany was hampered by POW approval delays and lack of any access tracks. The pegmatite outcrop discovered in October gave Horizon a starting point as very few pegmatites had been documented at Yarmany.
About Horizon Minerals Limited
Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia’s richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.
Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.
Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE’s, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.
www.ferroalloynet.com
