FDR Australia - New Geophysics Bullseye Target

RNS Number : 3688K

Power Metal Resources PLC

01 September 2021

 

1 September 2021

Power Metal Resources plc

("Power Metal" or the "Company")

Australian Copper-Gold Acquisition - New Geophysics Bullseye Target

Analytical Review of Geophysical Data Confirms a Third Magnetic Bullseye Target

Power Metal Resources plc (LON:POW), the London listed exploration company seeking large-scale metal discoveries across its global project portfolio, announces an update in respect the conditional acquisition of Australian Copper-Gold projects (the "Project") in the Paterson Region ( "Paterson") of Western Australia.

BACKGROUND

The Paterson projects are held by First Development Resources Pty Ltd ("FDR Australia") and include the Wallal Project, Braeside West Project and the Ripon Hills Project (for exploration licence details see Table 1 below).

On 28 April 2021 Power Metal announced a conditional acquisition of FDR Australia and this may be viewed through the following link:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/POW/conditional-australia-copper-gold-acquisition/14955517

A map outlining the Wallal licence and the anomalies referred to in the text below may be viewed on the Company's website through the following link:

https://www.powermetalresources.com/wallal-anomaly-map/

HIGHLIGHTS

· Additional magnetic geophysics circular anomaly, presenting as a distinct "bullseye" target,  identified at the eastern border of the licence (the "Border" anomaly).

· The new magnetic anomaly measures circa 1km x 1km, with approximately 70% falling within FDR Australia Wallal licence application area and 30% within the adjacent Rio Tinto licence area.

· Three major magnetic anomalies now identified (Western, Eastern and Border anomalies), and the review suggests the initial targets for drilling will be the Eastern and Border anomalies, which are located closer to the Wallal platform edge at shallower depths than the Western anomaly.  

· The Greatland Gold Havieron deposit discovery, located in basement rocks below 420m of post mineral sedimentary cover, resulted from the drilling of a distinct magnetic geophysics bullseye target.

· A Phase I work programme is currently being finalised which will include reprocessing of three historic 2D-seismic lines, as well a passive seismic survey centered over the Eastern and Border anomalies.

· A Heritage Agreement has been finalised by FDR Australia and grant of the Wallal licence application is expected within the next few weeks, allowing the completion of the conditional acquisition.

· Preparatory steps continue for listing of planned UK holding company FDR UK, which will hold 100% of FDR Australia on completion.

Paul Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Power Metal Resources plc commented:

"Technical work has continued in the background as we await licence grants, and notably the grant of the Wallal licence which will trigger completion of the conditional acquisition.

The identification of a further geophysical anomaly is another material step forward as we continue our work to define drill targets in the highly prospective Paterson Province.

Deep targets under cover certainly represent high-risk exploration, but as we have seen with Greatland Gold's discovery at their Havieron project, the Paterson offers great upside potential should a discovery be achieved.

Work continues corporately and technically, and further updates will follow in the coming weeks."

TECHNICAL FINDINGS

Analysis of open-file government airborne magnetic geophysics datasets originally led to the identification of two high-amplitude 'bullseye' shaped strongly magnetic anomalies within the Wallal Project.

These anomalies were named the Western and Eastern anomalies and had dimensions of roughly 5km x 5km and 2.5km x 2.5km respectively.

Additional processing of the geophysical datasets were completed which has led to the successful identification of a third, highly prospective, 'bullseye' shaped strongly magnetic anomaly which has been named the 'Border' anomaly.

This anomaly has dimensions of roughly 1km x 1km and spans the border between the Wallal Project and a project owned and operated by Rio Tinto Exploration ("Rio Tinto"), with approximately 70% located on FDR's licence and the remaining 30% on Rio Tinto's licence.

In additional to the geophysical processing and inversions completed on the airborne magnetic datasets, ground-gravity as well as various unprocessed 2D-seismic datasets were acquired from various free, open-file sources over the entire Wallal embayment and platform, providing coverage over the Western, Eastern and Border anomalies.

These datasets used in conjunction give very rough indications of the target depth to basement for the various geophysical anomalies of interest within the Project.

Moving from west to east within the Wallal Project, the datasets highlighted that the magnetic anomalies were determined to move from deeper to shallower depths as they approached the Wallal Embayment sedimentary basin gravity edge feature, which roughly follows the claim border between the Wallal licence application and Rio Tinto's exploration licence footprint.

As a result, the two furthest east anomalies (Eastern anomaly and the Border anomaly) were determined to lie at depths more comparable to those found at Greatland Gold's Havieron discovery, nearby within the Paterson Province, which is located below 420m of post mineral sedimentary cover.

A Phase I work programme is currently being planned which will include processing of three historic 2D-seismic lines, as well a passive seismic survey centered over the Eastern and Border anomalies.

The passive seismic survey which should help build an understanding of the stratigraphy and the depth to basement,  would represent FDR Australia's first ground exploration at the Project, and will play an important step in determining various drill targeting and logistical aspects (e.g. access, project infrastructure, location of water sources) which will be critical for future work programmes on the Project.

The Phase I work programme will provide critical information, including more precise depth to basement measurement of the Eastern and Border anomalies, which will be used for planning of future programmes, including a possible deep-diamond drilling campaign.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Regional Background

· Paterson Province widely regarded as one of the most prospective provinces in Australia for the discovery of world class gold-copper deposits.

· Paterson Province is home to several world class mines and recent discoveries including the following which host JORC compliant resources: Winu (Rio Tinto - 503Mt at 0.45% CuEq¹), Havieron (Greatland Gold - 4.2Moz AuEq¹), Telfer (Newcrest Mining - 31Moz Au).

Wallal Project

§ The Wallal Project (the "Wallal") is transacted by Highway 1 and is located less than 200km from Port Hedland, Australia and shares an extended border with Rio Tinto Exploration licence footprint.

Magnetic Targets Identified at Wallal

· Major Au-Cu deposits within the Paterson Province, including Winu (Rio Tinto) and Havieron (Newcrest Mining-Greatland Gold JV) were evaluated in comparison to the Wallal Eastern Magnetic Anomaly and determined to have many geophysical and structural similarities.

· Open-file publicly available airborne magnetic dataset (TMIRTP² 5km High-Pass) has identified three highly prospective bullseye³ magnetic targets within the Wallal Project.

· The Western Anomaly is approximately 5km x 5km; and the Eastern Anomaly is approximately 2.5km x 2.5km and is located at the transect of two northwest-southeast trending magnetic linear anomalies (representing possible major structures). The newly discovered Border anomaly is approximately 1km x 1km and spans the border between the Wallal Project and a project owned and operated by Rio Tinto.

· Greatland Gold's Havieron discovery is coincident with a magnetic bullseye anomaly which was detected by an airborne magnetic survey flown over the region.

· The Havieron and Wallal Eastern anomaly have similar magnetic amplitudes; approximately 80nT  (nanoTesla) for Havieron and 100nT for the Wallal Eastern Anomaly. The Wallal Eastern Anomaly is slightly larger than the anomaly over the Havieron deposit.

· Direct comparisons between Wallal and Havieron (geophysical)/Winu (geological), bode well for prospectivity of the Eastern and Border magnetic anomalies.

· Additional geophysical inversions are ongoing and various geophysical datasets are being acquired in order to better determine orientation and depth to bedrock of these compelling geophysical targets prior to drilling.

Table 1: First Development Resources Pty Ltd Paterson Province Exploration Licence / Application Holdings

Project	Granted Exploration Licence	Exploration Licence Application	Grant Date	Application Lode Date
Ripon Hills Project	E45/5088		July 5, 2018
Wallal Project		E45/5816 E45/5853 E45/5880		Oct 6, 2020 Feb 3, 2021 Mar 10, 2021
Braeside West Project		E45/5854		Feb 3, 2021

Reference Notes:

1:  CuEq or AuEq: Copper Equivalent grade (CuEq), Gold Equivalent grade (AuEq): Equivalent grades are often employed where a deposit is comprised of several different metals which have the potential to each contribute economic value to the deposit. The equivalent value of the individual minor metals is converted via a formula to a single major metal, usually the major metal which is the most economically dominant in the deposits. The formula used can vary but often employs metal prices and metal recoveries. ASX-listed companies are able to report metal equivalent grades provided they are accompanied by: all individual metal assays; commodity price assumptions; assumed recoveries; the formula; and confirmation that there is good potential for all metals to be recovered.

2:  TMIRTP : Total magnetic intensity (TMI) reduced to pole (RTP) relates to the magnetic geophysics data processing methods employed for interpretation of the raw survey data.

3:  Bullseye: A bullseye magnetic target is a distinct high-intensity anomaly comprising concentric circular bands of high gradient magnetic intensity surrounding a central point.  The analogy is with a dartboard bullseye which presents a distinct central target.

COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT

The technical information contained in this disclosure has been read and approved by Mr Nick O'Reilly (MSc, DIC, MIMMM, MAusIMM, FGS), who is a qualified geologist and acts as the Competent Person under the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr O'Reilly is a Principal consultant working for Mining Analyst Consulting Ltd which has been retained by Power Metal Resources PLC to provide technical support.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

For further information please visit https://www.powermetalresources.com/ or contact:

Power Metal Resources plc
Paul Johnson (Chief Executive Officer)	[phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nomad and Joint Broker)
Ewan Leggat/Charlie Bouverat	[phone]
SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker)
Nick Emerson	[phone]
First Equity Limited (Joint Broker)
David Cockbill/Jason Robertson	[phone]

Notes to Editors:

Power Metal Resources plc (LON:POW) is an AIM listed metals exploration company which finances and manages global resource projects and is seeking large scale metal discoveries.

The Company has a principal focus on opportunities offering district scale potential across a global portfolio including precious and base metal exploration in North America, Africa and Australia.

Project interests range from early-stage greenfield exploration to later-stage prospects currently subject to drill programmes.

Power Metal will develop projects internally or through strategic joint ventures until a project becomes ready for disposal through outright sale or separate listing on a recognised stock exchange thereby crystallising the value generated from our internal exploration and development work.

Value generated through disposals will be deployed internally to drive the Company's growth or may be returned to shareholders through share buy backs, dividends or in-specie distributions of assets.

 

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