Licence Grant Australia - Potential IOCG Target

RNS Number : 8491X

Power Metal Resources PLC

01 September 2022

 

1 September 2022

Power Metal Resources PLC

("Power Metal" or the "Company")

Licence Grant South Australia - Potential IOCG Target identified

Power Metal Resources PLC (LON:POW), the London listed exploration company seeking large-scale metal discoveries across its global project portfolio announces an update from its wholly owned Australian subsidiary Power Metal Resources Australia Pty Ltd ("POW Australia").

HIGHLIGHTS:

Licence Grant

§ POW Australia has received confirmation of the grant of exploration licence application ("ELA") 2021-000163, covering 999km² of ground in the Anna Creek area of South Australia.

§ The ELA has now converted to an exploration licence numbered EL6819 and carries an initial term of 6 years ending 24 August 2028, subject to a minimum exploration spend of A$100,000 (Circa £59,000) prior to 23 August 2024.

§ Recognising the grant of EL6819, the property has been named the Wilan Project ("Wilan" or the "Project").

Potential IOCG Target Identified

§ A desktop technical review completed over EL6819 has identified an under-cover, approximately 4x6km coincident magnetic and gravity geophysical anomaly (the "Target") located in the southeast of the Project.

§ The existence of a coincident magnetic/gravity anomaly is considered highly significant given the location of the licence within the Gawler Craton¹, which constitutes a major Iron Oxide-Copper-Gold ("IOCG") deposit province.  IOCG deposits consist of important and highly valuable concentrations of copper, gold and uranium mineralisation², the most famous example in the Gawler Craton is the Olympic Dam Mine³ ("Olympic Dam"). Most IOCG deposits were initially discovered through regional magnetic and gravity geophysics targeting.

§ Based on geophysics interpretation the Target is hosted within cratonic basement below 200-300m of younger cover sediments - this part of the Project has never been drill tested.

§ Olympic Dam is located approximately 150km south of the Property and owned and operated by BHP Group Limited and is the largest known IOCG deposit in the world and an important source of copper-gold and uranium. Notably, the discovery of Olympic Dam was made by drilling a blind coincidental magnetic & gravity anomaly.⁴

Next Steps

§ Power Metal are currently planning for expedited field exploration which is expected to include high-resolution gravity and magnetic surveys over the Target.

§ The Wilan Project also includes ongoing licence application ELA 2021-000162, covering an area of 995km² and which lies contiguous and to the northwest of EL6819.

§ The Company is working through the balancing administration work to secure the grant of ELA 2021-000162, where our technical review to date has identified multiple exploration targets.

A map highlighting the location of the Wilan Project, the newly granted licence, as well as the relative location of the new IOCG target can be found at the link below:

https://www.powermetalresources.com/wilan-copper-gold-licence-map/

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

"As mentioned previously, Power Metal is resolutely focused on the imminent drill programme at the Molopo Farms Complex project located in Botswana, and our team are working hard there to maintain the momentum.

However, the grant of the first Wilan Project exploration licence (EL6819) represents a potentially significant milestone, as ongoing desktop work has identified a large Target located wholly within the newly granted licence.

There is more work to do, clearly, and we are early stage here, however all projects of substance start early stage and the Wilan Project is off to a great start."

BACKGROUND

On 27 October 2021 Power Metal announced the submission of two licence applications in South Australia covering a total of 1,994km² and targeting Olympic Dam style mineralisation. 

A link to this announcement is provided below:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/POW/new-australia-copper-gold-opportunity/15189456

NOTES & REFERENCES

1:  Gawler Craton:  The Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 km² of central South Australia and constitutes a major IOCG deposit province and a major source of Australia's iron, gold, copper and uranium. A craton is an old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for at least 500 million, to over 2 billion years. Cratons are generally found in the interiors of continents and are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement crust of lightweight felsic igneous rock such as granite. They have a thick crust and deep roots that extend into the mantle beneath to depths of 200 km.

2:  Iron Oxide Copper Gold ("IOCG") Deposit: IOCG ore bodies range from around 10 million to >4,000 million tonnes of contained ore, and have a grade of between 0.2% and 5% copper, with gold contents ranging from 0.1 to 1.41 grams per tonne. Source: Zhu, Zhimin (2016-01-01). "Gold in iron oxide copper-gold deposits". Ore Geology Reviews. 72: 37-42. doi:10.1016/j.oregeorev.2015.07.001. ISSN 0169-1368.

3:  The Olympic Dam mine is a large poly-metallic underground mine located in South Australia, 550 km NNW of Adelaide. It is the fourth largest copper deposit and the largest known single deposit of uranium in the world. Copper is the largest contributor to total revenue, accounting for approximately 70% of the mine's revenue, with the remaining 25% from uranium, and around 5% from silver and gold.[1] BHP has owned and operated the mine since 2005. The mine was previously owned by Western Mining Corporation. Source: Wikipedia

2:  Austin. J., Foss C., (2012) Rich, attractive and extremely dense: A geophysical review of Australian IOCGs, ASEG Extended Abstracts, 2012:1, 1-4, DOI: 10.1071/ASEG2012ab278. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1071/ASEG2012ab278 

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 - Background

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, base and strategic 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.

Exploration Work Overview

Power Metal has internal exploration programmes completed or underway, with results awaited, as outlined in the table below.

Project	Location	Current POW %	Work Completed or Underway	Results Awaited
Athabasca Uranium	Canada	100%	Ground exploration programme underway at 3 properties.  Continuing data analysis across the property portfolio.	Results from ground exploration including spectrometer analysis, sampling and mapping.
Authier North Lithium	Canada	Earn-in to 100%	Property Evaluation Report completed.	Update covering exploration plans for target areas identified during the Evaluation.
Molopo Farms	Botswana	53%#	Final preparations for the launch of K1-6 conductor target drilling and MLEM surveys over T1-6, T1-14, T1-3 and T2-3 targets.	Commencement of T1-6 drill programme, and findings therefrom and results from MLEM surveys.
Tati Project	Botswana	100%	RC drilling underway and previously sampling of mine dumps complete.	Review of mine dumps sampling, and processing potential.  Results from RC drill programme.

^# subject to completion of acquisition announced 18.5.22 interest will increase to 87.71%

Exploration work programmes may also be underway within Power Metal investee companies and planned IPO vehicles where Power Metal has a material interest, the findings from which will be released on their respective websites, with simultaneous updates through Power Metal regulatory announcements where required.  These interests are summarised in the table below:

Company	Status/Operations	Link
First Class Metals PLC	Investment - POW 28.19% Exploration in the Schreiber-Hemlo region of Ontario, Canada	www.firstclassmetalsplc.com
First Development Resources PLC	Planned IPO - POW 62.12% Exploration in Western Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia	www.firstdevelopmentresources.com
Golden Metal Resources PLC	Planned IPO - POW 83.13% Exploration and development in Nevada, USA	www.goldenmetalresources.com
Kavango Resources PLC	Investment - POW 14.03% (subject to completion of Kanye Resources disposal announced 8.7.22) Exploration in Botswana	www.kavangoresources.com
New Ballarat Gold PLC	Planned IPO - POW 49.9% Exploration in the Victoria Goldfields of Australia	A new website is currently in development which will be found at www.newballaratgoldcorp.com . In the interim further information in respect of NBGC can be found at: https://www.powermetalresources.com/project/victoria-goldfields/ .

 

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