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Penny Taylor
Accelerate Resources has fired up the reverse circulation rig at its Woodie Woodie North manganese project in Western Australiaโs East Pilbara, launching the first modern drill test of a highly prospective 12-kilometre-long corridor.
The maiden 3500-metre program will probe Gingarrigan, a prospect within Woodie Woodie North, 10km south-east of the companyโs existing Area 42 resource. Expected to take five weeks, it will test priority outcrops for thickness, grade and continuity at depth.
The 12km corridor stretches southeast from Area 42 to its El Largo prospect, with systematic mapping identifying more than 200 manganese outcrops along the Gingarrigan and El Largo trends. Rock chips have graded up to 59.4 per cent manganese at El Largo and 59.6 per cent at Faris, another Woodie Woodie North prospect 2km southeast of Area 42. Accelerate says the trend may host a series of shallow manganese deposits that could build on the existing deposit.
Woodie Woodie North, 260km east of Port Hedland, covers 432 square kilometres and includes seven mapped manganese trends extending over 42km of strike. Consolidated Mineralsโ operating manganese mine lies 55km south of the project, in one of WAโs most significant manganese provinces. The districtโs mining history stretches back to the early 1950โs; manganese was the first bulk commodity shipped from the port, more than a decade before iron ore exports took over.
โGingarrigan represents a genuine opportunity to further grow the project.โ
Accelerate Resources chief executive officer Luke Meter
Despite the promising surface signs, the Area 42-El Largo trend remains largely untested. Historic drilling outside Area 42 was limited to a handful of scattered, shallow vertical holes drilled in 1996. Those holes averaged just nine metres deep, with none extending beyond 15m, leaving plenty of prospective ground untouched beneath the surface.
Gingarrigan lies outside the projectโs existing 1.2-million-tonne inferred resource, grading 19.1 per cent manganese, and its conceptual exploration target of 5.3 to 10.7 million tonnes at 10 to 19 per cent manganese. Neither Gingarrigan nor El Largo is included in those figures, so any mineralisation defined by the campaign could add to the projectโs inventory.
Accelerate Resources chief executive officer Luke Meter said: โToday marks the start of a key program for the Woodie Woodie North Manganese Project. We have identified over 200 manganese outcrops in the Gingarrigan and El Largo trends alone. Accelerate will now systematically drill test this area for the first time. Gingarrigan represents a genuine opportunity to further grow the project.โ
Once the Gingarrigan program is complete, the rig will move to Area 42 for a second phase of work, targeting extensions to its 700,000-tonne resource grading 20.7 per cent manganese.
It will also follow up a recent diamond hole at Nathanโs Flat, within the deposit area, where visual manganese mineralisation was identified across 72m from 5.6m downhole. The hole ended in mineralisation, leaving the zoneโs full depth extent untested. Laboratory assays are still needed to confirm grade, but the intercept provides a compelling target for the upcoming resource drilling.
Gingarrigan samples will be sent to the laboratory in batches, with assays reported regularly after receipt and validation. The company is also awaiting metallurgical test results from three Area 42 diamond holes ahead of further resource drilling. Meanwhile, mapping and rock-chip sampling will continue at Faris, across the Sea Turtle iron-manganese alteration system and along the broader 12km Area 42โEl Largo corridor.
To fund the ongoing Woodie Woodie North exploration push, Accelerate has received firm commitments for a $1.1M placement, issuing 275 million new shares at A$0.004 each, with settlement scheduled for the end of the month. Directors and management are also looking to put some skin in the game, flagging plans to chip in A$70,000, subject to shareholder approval.
The money raised will support discovery drilling at Gingarrigan along with resource drilling and permitting at Area 42. Part of the funds is also earmarked for geochemistry and drilling at Balagundi, the companyโs gold project near Kalgoorlie, as well as general working capital and placement costs.
For three decades, a 12km manganese trend dotted with high-grade outcrops has sat quietly in one of WAโs premier manganese districts. With the drill rods finally spinning and assays in the making, Accelerate is just weeks away from finding out what lies beneath the surface.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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