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$0.019ASX:NMR

QUEENSLAND

Queensland Projects

NMR manages and is actively exploring, two projects in Queensland:

  1. The Palmerville project – consisting of a suite of 9 tenements over one of the most prospective belts in Queensland for comer mineralisation.

  2. The Maneater Breccia project – located approximately 100km west of Cairns, the target is a proven mineralised breccia pipe where further exploration is required below the current level of exploration. 

Palmerville

NMR’s flagship Palmerville Project comprises 9 exploration permits in the highly prospective Chillagoe Formation which hosts the large Red Dome, Griffiths Hill and Mungana porphyry gold-copper and polymetallic deposits.

NMR’s priority at Palmerville is the development of the Leane’s copper/gold prospect within EPM 11980. The Palmerville Project area also holds an additional 66 potential copper/gold mineralisation occurrences worthy of further investigation. Following initial desktop studies NMR has prioritised these into:

Priority 1: Leane’s Prospect EPM 11980

Priority 2: Glenroy, Fairlight and Little Kennedy Prospects Bald Hill Prospect

Priority 3: all other prospects

Leane’s Prospect

During late 2020 NMR carried out a drilling programme at Leane’s and were successful in confirming the presence of copper bearing breccia and porphyry intrusions. The geological environment including structure and mineralisation encountered is considered anomalous to that found in the early stages of exploration at the Mungana, Griffiths Hill and Red Dome mines.

Copper in breccia at Glenroy
Proximity of Palmerville Project to other major mining operations
RC Drilling at Leane’s Prospect, Palmerville

Glenroy, Little Kennedy and Fairlight

Host to a number of historical small copper/gold mines and mineral occurrences, these three prospects make up the Glenroy Prospect. Hosted by basalt-dominated Chillagoe Formation the workings are coincident with a discrete magnetic high that may be the alteration signature due to magnetite or pyrrhotite associated with mineralisation. Widespread copper and gold stream anomalies have been noted by previous explorers. The areas are relatively under explored and once initial desk top studies have been completed, NMR is planning an exploration programme including soil sampling and an initial RC drilling programme.

Au stream sediment samples overlain on airborne Magnetics
Copper and gold stream anomalies Glenroy Prospect

Bald Hill

The Bald Hill and Mountain Creek prospects lie in the central part of the Palmerville Project on EPM 18325 approximately 10 km south of Leane’s. Exploration is focused on the delineation of porphyry copper-gold, skarn and volcanic massive sulphide (VMS) copper-gold, lead and zinc style deposits within the highly prospective Chillagoe Formation which hosts the Mungana and Red Dome mines.

Bald Hill is a discrete magnetic high associated with a microgranite plug with sparse rock chip sampling returning up to 0.26 ppm Au. Immediately south of Bald Hill, the historic Mountain Creek copper workings appear to lie on a northwesterly trending structural zone, with one rock chip sample returning 0.575 ppm Au coincident with a small magnetic anomaly.

Maneater Breccia

Map showing the location of the exploration permit application EPM28038 located approximately 100 kilometres west of Cairns in Northern Queensland. The base map is the regional 1:5M geology map of Queensland. The tenement and target are located proximal to existing mining infrastructure at Chillagoe, Mareeba and Cairns.

The Maneater Hill Breccia is a newly acquired target for NMR.

The Maneater Breccia is considered a high-potential, but short-term target owing to the presence of an existing drill and a very well-defined target below the current limit of drilling. The target is located close to infrastructure and “on the way” to NMR’s existing Palmerville Project.

The company has undertaken extensive research and, based on the results from previous explorers consider the target prospective for gold and copper below the current level of drilling.

The breccia has a single drill diamond drill hole completed in 1995. The 363.8M long drill hole (dipping at -53 degrees) cuts across the breccia and is reported to include 300m of breccia containing variable mounts of sulfide but reaching 80% and 100% sulfides at ~240m down hole.

While pyrite is the dominant sulfide within the breccia, assays and other observations of drill core contained with previous company reports highlight a lead (galena) and zinc (sphalerite) dominated base metal assemblage. Chalcopyrite is only noted in drill core below 134m down-hole depth. Other features such as cavities and low grades of gold (except in surface veins where gold assays of up to 2.05g/t have been recovered) suggest that the level of investigation of the breccia pipe is above the higher-grade gold and copper core at greater depths. The metal zoning is indicative of the same metal zoning observed at the >1Moz Mt Wright Breccia Pipe located near Ravenswood, approximately 280km to the south.

Features of significance reported by previous explorers

  1. Rock chip samples from a vein adjacent to the breccia pipe of 2.05g/t Au and 65g/t Ag (sample number s40208; Stevens-Hoare & Robinson 1985).
  2. Other samples returning grades of 14.9% Pb (Sample number s40266) and 9.45% Pb (Sample number s40017; Stevens-Hoare & Robinson 1985).
  3. The breccia pipe forms a prominent topographic high (Maneater Hill), with both breccia and mineralisation present at the surface.
  4. The breccia is clast-supported and contains sulfide contents up to 100%.

 

Significant observations reported in diamond drill hole log (*note that the diamond drill hole was oriented at a dip of -53O, across the vertical mineralised breccia pipe). 

  1. Increasing base metal abundance with depth.
  2. Diamond drill hole intersected sulfide-bearing breccia over a 300m intersection (not true width) of the breccia from 48m to 356m down hole depth.
  3.  Lead-, zinc- plus pyrite-dominated sulfide assemblage in the majority of the drill core.
  4. Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) reported below 134m in drill core.
  5. 2m interval at 8g/t silver assay from sample Q26238 between 74m and 76m down hole depth. 
  6. Open space cavities noted throughout drill core but decreasing in abundance with depth
  7. The interpreted age of the Breccia Pipe (Late Carboniferous – Early Permian) is the same as Resolute Mining Limited’s Welcome and Mt Wright Breccia pipe located approximately 360-380 kilometres to the south respectively.
  8. The breccia forms a distinctive topographic high, similar to Mt Wright, Kidston and Mt Leyshon, as well as other breccia-hosted deposits found in north Queensland.
  9. Cavities noted in drill core suggesting high levels (i.e. close to the Earth’s surface at the time of intrusion) within the breccia system.

Figure – Simplified geology map of the area on and around application EPM28038. The target Maneater Breccia is located near the centre of the tenement and croups out as a prominent hill within the lower topography of the surrounding area which is dominated by the metamorphic rocks of the Hodgkinson Province. 1:100,000 Solid Geology map obtained from QLD governments GeoResGlobe, 10 October 2021. Grid reference is GDA94 MGA Zone 55.

Figure – Schematic diagram from Resolute Mining’s Mt Wright Breccia Pipe showing the metal zoning observed in association with gold mineralisation at depth. A review of existing data contained within publicly accessible reports from previous explorers shows similarities with the zoning observed at the Mt Wright Breccia including a zone of high lead, zinc, and silver but low gold near the top of the breccia and above the zone of primary gold mineralisation. Features found at the maneater breccia are listed on the right-hand side of the cross section. The schematic section through the Mt Wright Breccia Pipe obtained from a Resolute Mining Limited public presentation (2013). The upper part of the metal zoning is analogous to the results from the single drill hole in the Maneater Breccia on EPM 28038.

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