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Murray Ward
Accelerate Resources has hit thick zones of visual manganese mineralisation in all three large-diameter diamond holes drilled for metallurgical testwork at its Woodie Woodie North project in Western Australia’s East Pilbara. One hole returned an impressive 72-metre downhole span of visual mineralisation.
The Perth-based explorer completed three vertical holes for a total of 159 metres at its Area 42 deposit. The drilling will provide bulk samples for an important metallurgical program to define a development pathway for the project.
The standout hole intersected multiple zones of visual manganese mineralisation across a 72-metre downhole span, from just 5.6m below surface to the end of the hole at 77.6m. The company says the hole terminated in mineralised chert breccia, which holds the manganese, leaving what might be lurking below in the system untested.
The other two holes also delivered the goods, with the second intersecting visual manganese from 14.3m to 27.3m, while the third hit mineralisation from surface down to 23.1m.
‘Together, the three metallurgical holes highlight the scale potential of mineralisation at the Area 42 resource.’
Accelerate Resources managing director and chief executive officer Luke Meter
The news lands at an opportune time, with the global manganese market backdrop tightening amid recent supply disruptions at major producers and stronger buyer interest in long-term supply agreements. It follows a savvy move by Accelerate last week to consolidate 100 per cent ownership of the project, clearing the decks of all legacy payments and royalties.
Accelerate Resources managing director and chief executive officer Luke Meter said: “The metallurgical program is a key step in defining the development pathway for Area 42. The large-diameter core provides the sample mass required to assess both direct shipping ore and dense media separation pathways using continuous bench-scale composites. The results will help define potential product specifications, processing requirements and the mining concept for Area 42.”
The drill core is now on its way to Perth for detailed logging and analysis at the CSIRO, in addition to metallurgical testwork at NAGROM, with results to be reported as soon as they come to hand. The program is designed to assess the material’s suitability as a direct shipping ore (DSO). For bulk commodity miners, DSO is the holy grail as it means the ore is high-grade enough to be simply dug up and shipped with minimal processing, dramatically slashing both capital and operating costs.
The company has already carved out a maiden inferred mineral resource of 1.2 million tonnes grading a solid 19.1 per cent manganese at the 432-square-kilometre project, which sits just 55km north of Consolidated Minerals’ long-running Woodie Woodie manganese mine. The company has also outlined a hefty exploration target of between 5.3 and 10.7 million tonnes at grades of 10 to 19 per cent manganese.
Being on the doorstep of a major, multi-decade mining operation is an enviable position for any explorer. Perhaps more importantly, though, the at-surface geology doesn’t respect tenement boundaries, with Accelerate saying it appears to be sitting on a significant extension of the same mineralised system that has made its neighbour a globally significant producer.
With the ownership structure now cleaned up and 100 per cent of any future discovery captured, the company is turning the drill bit’s attention to another prospect. A maiden 3000-metre reverse-circulation drilling program at its high-grade Gingarrigan prospect is scheduled to kick off this month.
Gingarrigan is backed by some seriously impressive surface numbers. Recent rock chip sampling from outcrops at the prospect returned grades of up to a whopping 59.4 per cent manganese.
To put that in context, Australia’s two major operating mines at Woodie Woodie and Groote Eylandt boast resource grades of 45.5 per cent and 43.6 per cent manganese, respectively. While surface samples are not a guarantee of what lies beneath, grades like that are enough to make a West Perth miner blush and they may prove why the company is itching to get the drill rods turning at Gingarrigan.
Accelerate has flagged a potential rebrand to “Mango Metals” – a neat mash-up of manganese and gold that better reflects its dual-pronged strategy of Pilbara manganese and its Balagundi gold project near Kalgoorlie. A recent drill program at Balagundi recorded an impressive 11-metre intercept grading 4.65 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 25 metres, featuring a one-metre slice at a bonanza-grade 46.93g/t gold.
For now, though, all eyes are on the manganese. Having tidied up its ownership, hit a 72-metre stretch of visual mineralisation with assays heading to the lab and a suite of high-grade rock chips pointing the way for the next drill campaign, Accelerate appears to be building a compelling exploration case in a commodity market that is crying out for new supply.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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