Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) is pleased to update shareholders on the company’s upcoming exploration activities at Browns Range in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
HIGHLIGHTS:
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$5 million exploration budget for 2020/21 financial year;
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Over 16,000 metres drilling planned in the program; and
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Multiple prospects to be tested.
The Company has allocated a budget of up $5 million for the program in Financial Year 2021 with drill rigs expected on site in mid-October. The exploration program is focused on increasing the Mineral Resource and the life of mine potential at Browns Range. These results, along with the findings from Pilot Plant testwork, will feed into a new feasibility study to evaluate the potential for a commercial, larger scale heavy rare earths plant.
Drilling at Dazzler
Northern Minerals is planning approximately 8,000m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Browns Range before the end of 2020. The drill program will test several new drill targets as well as following-up on significant drilling intersections at a number of prospects including Polaris, Rogue and Banshee South. Eight RC drill holes were completed at Banshee South in 2019 with the final drill hole, BRBR0044, returning the broadest mineralised intersection at the prospect to date, with 22m @ 0.52% TREO from 15m. This drill hole is located outside the defined surface geochemical anomaly at the northwest end of the prospect and there is no drilling immediately to the west or northwest (see Figure 1 below). Details of the 2019 drilling at Banshee South are contained in the ASX announcement dated 11 March 2020 entitled “Browns Range Exploration Update”.
Drilling will also be targeted at the Dazzler area where mineralisation occurs in four separate zones over a strike length of approximately 600m. High-grade mineralisation occurs in an argillite unit immediately above the unconformity with the Browns Range Metamorphics. The “structural corridor” proximal to the unconformity, from Dazzler extending northwest and also southeast towards the Northern Territory (a strike length of approximately 12km) is considered prospective for Dazzler-style mineralisation. In 2019 BRDR0093, which is located 400m northwest of the Dazzler deposit, intersected 7m @ 0.46% TREO from 39m with no further drilling northwest of this drill hole. Details of this drilling are contained in the ASX announcement dated 11 March 2020 entitled “Browns Range Exploration Update”. Follow-up drilling is intended around this drillhole with infill along the corridor towards Iceman.