Ashburton Minerals is pleased to announce that it has signed an option agreement with Bestgold Investments Pty Ltd under which it has the right to purchase three granted exploration licences in the Mount Webb region in far eastern Western Australia on the Northern Territory border. This area is considered highly prospective for Cu-Au (U) mineralisation.
The Bestgold tenements (E80/3327, 3328 and 3329) are some 540 km2 in area and, together with Ashburton’s own exploration licence application (E80/3785) of 630 km2 in area, the Mount Webb project comprises over 1,000 km2 of contiguous tenure in the region (see Figures 1 – 5, below).
This remote area has been only sparsely explored in the past. The only company scale work reported is the limited, though very encouraging, exploration by Aurora Gold and later BHP in the period 1997 to 2000. No exploration has been carried out over the area since that time.
In a short period of time, Aurora Gold identified a number of anomalous targets. Semi-continuous rock chip sampling returned results of 9.1% Cu, 3 g/t Ag and 0.38 g/t Au over a true width of 4 m, and 0.3% Cu and 8 g/t Ag over a true width of 10 m.
Subsequent aircore drilling by Aurora Gold confirmed the presence of three Cu-Au-Ag anomalies, the largest of which extended over three adjacent 800 m-spaced lines with peak values of 0.21 g/t Au and 896 ppm Cu.
On the basis of these results, BHP joint ventured into the Aurora Gold ground and completed a reverse circulation drilling programme in 1999 which returned a best result of 36 m @ 0.42% Cu and 0.55 g/t Au, including an interval of 6 m @ 1.68% Cu and 0.29 g/t Au. The precise location of these BHP results is unknown.
Aurora Gold did not report any subsequent work by BHP. It is known that BHP experienced difficulties in negotiating land access and in 2000 the general area experienced extreme flooding due to cyclonic activity. There is no other reported company exploration activity in the area.
The Bestgold tenements, over which the Company has secured an option, encompass all of the key anomalies identified by Aurora Gold, including the Pokali, Mantati, Buck Hills and Uamari prospects, while the Ashburton application encompasses the intervening ground. The combined landholding is some 1,170 km2 (see Figure 3 and Figure 5, below).
The Mount Webb region forms the western part of the Central Australian Arunta Block. The dominant geology of the area includes the Proterozoic Mount Webb Granite and comagmatic felsic volcanics and associated sediments.
According to studies completed by AGSO (now Geoscience Australia; Budd et al., 2001) the primary and alteration geochemistry of the felsic magmas of the Mount Webb region indicate that this magmatic system has many similarities to granites in other Proterozoic regions where hydrothermal Cu and Au deposits have been linked to magmatic sources, including the Williams Batholith of the eastern Mount Isa Inlier (eg., Ernest Henry and Osborne Cu-Au-Ag-U deposits) and the Hiltaba Suite of the Gawler Craton (eg., Olympic Dam area Cu-Au-U deposits).
Although very good results for Cu, Ag and Au were returned, as mentioned above, there is no record of Aurora Gold having conducted analyses for uranium, despite the strong inference that the geological similarities to the above ‘world-class’ mineralised regions suggest that the Mount Webb region is also prospective for uranium mineralisation. Significantly, immediately north of the Ashburton and Bestgold tenements Nova Energy’s Lake MacKay Project comprises a number of large tenements deemed prospective for uranium.
Of further significance is that on the NT side of the border, the Arunta Block is blanket-pegged and is being actively prospected for a variety of commodities, including gold, copper and uranium.
Bestgold is a company controlled by Ashburton directors Rodney Dunn and Tom Dukovcic. As such, Mr Dunn and Mr Dukovcic did not take part in the board meeting at which a resolution was passed to agree to the terms of the option to purchase the Bestgold tenements.
Under the terms of the option, Ashburton has paid Bestgold an option fee of $10,000 to secure a 12 month exclusive right of possession of the Bestgold tenements during which time Ashburton has the right to purchase the tenements for a consideration of $30,000 in cash and the issue to Bestgold of ordinary fully paid shares in the capital of Ashburton to the value of $200,000, with the number of shares to be issued to be determined by the volume weighted average share price for the five business days prior to settlement of the purchase. Settlement is conditional upon the approval of Ashburton shareholders for the issue of the shares, together with any other necessary approvals under the Corporations Act or the ASX Listing Rules.
The project tenements are contained within land reserves that have been set aside for the use and benefit of Aboriginal Inhabitants (Land Reserve numbers A24923 and A40783) under the jurisdiction of the Ngaanyatjarra Land Council. In the event that Ashburton is unable to access the tenements due to bona fide delays in negotiating with the traditional owners, the option period will be extended by a period of 6 months.
The prospectivity of this region has long been promoted by AGSO/Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA). The main conclusions of the AGSO study were:
• The granites of the Mount Webb region show all the important characteristics of granites associated with Cu-Au mineralisation elsewhere in the Australian Proterozoic including the Hiltaba Suite granitoids which host the Olympic Dam Iron Oxide Cu-Au-U deposit;
• The age of the Mount Webb granite is 1640 Ma which is consistent with other key mineralising events elsewhere in the Australian Proterozoic;
• Widespread sodic alteration and brecciation in the Mount Webb granite is also consistent with other Iron Oxide Cu-Au deposits.
• The Mount Webb Shear Zone was active during the emplacement of the granite allowing for the development of breccia bodies and focusing of fluid flow.
• Mineralisation is most likely to be associated either within shear zones or as a replacement of favourable host units, including the possibility of mineralisation occurring within the Mount Webb granite.
Following on from these positive indicators, the successful results generated by Aurora Gold and BHP, and the high level of activity within the Arunta Block in the NT, the GSWA undertook a detailed gravity survey over the Mount Webb area in late 2006, thus further underlining its belief in the prospectivity of this province.
The Mount Webb area consequently represents one of the last remaining under-explored, but highly prospective and large mineralised provinces in Western Australia. The promotion of the area by Geoscience Australia and the GSWA underpins the real prospectivity of the region.
The Mount Webb project contains all the right ingredients, including geology, age and setting, as well as significant mineralisation identified by limited previous work. The area is highly prospective for an extensive mineralised system and therefore has the potential to host a major Cu-Au (+/-U) discovery. The project ties in well with Ashburton’s strategy, as undertaken in Brazil, of targeting projects of a sufficient size and potential to host world class deposits. The Company therefore looks forward to exploration success at this exciting under-explored project.
Rick Crabb
Chairman
8 February 2007
For further information, contact
Ashburton Minerals Ltd
T: 08 9266 0300
F: 08 9266 0301
e: ashburton@ashmin.com.au
I:
www.ashburton-minerals.com.auThe information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Tom Dukovcic, who is an employee of the Company and a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and who has sufficient relevant experience to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 edition of the “Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.” Mr Dukovcic consents to the inclusion in this report of information compiled by him in the form and context in which it appears.
Cited Reference:
Budd, A.R., Wyborn, L.A.I. and Bastrakova, I.V. 2001. The Metallogenic Potential of Australian Proterozoic Grnaites, Geoscience Australia, Record 2001/12.
Figures 1 – 5 follow:
Figure 1. Mount Webb Project: Location of the Bestgold tenements
Figure 2. Mount Webb Project: Bestgold tenements and location of Aurora Gold anomalies.
Figure 3. Mount Webb Project: Bestgold tenements (granted; blue) and Ashburton application (red). The Audax Resources tenement is excised.
Figure 4. Mount Webb Project: Regional aeromagnetics TMI (total magnetic intensity) image.
Figure 5. Mount Webb Project: Tenements (Ashburton, red; Bestgold, blue), anomalies (green) and prospective structural trends. The Audax Resources tenement is excised.
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