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MINING | Metal Bank | ASX
M E TA L Targeting near surface high-grade discover
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L BANK ies
in Queensland’s historic goldfields
MINING | Metal Bank | ASX
2017 will go down as a highly successful year for Queenslandbased Metal Bank. The ASXlisted mining junior is advancing a succession of near surface high-grade discoveries at its flagship Triumph gold project in Southeast Queensland. Under a highly experienced management team led by chair Inés Scotland, a legendary mining executive and founder of Citadel Resource Group, Metal Bank has been able to attract healthy sums of capital to fund exploration stage activity. After the success of the last 12 months, this explorer is ready to further build its story through definition of near surface high-grade gold resources to support a mining operation comprised of multiple open pits at Triumph. RGN speaks to managing director Tony Schreck.
The Triumph project “Exploration success over the past 12
maiden resource figure in the middle of this year, with the aim of developing multiple shallow open pits into a mining operation.” While the last year has seen a definite acceleration in terms of good news coming out of the Triumph project, this fruitful period has largely been a function of four years of exploration discovery success across the project with drilling only really just starting to test the pipeline of new targets revealing near surface high-grade gold mineralisation and also bulk tonnage gold potential. Schreck and exploration manager Trevor Wright were both instrumental in putting the Queensland gold projects together and have built a highly competent team which specialises in discovery. An important part of the team’s recent work has centred on demonstrating a compelling link between the near surface high-grade mineralisation discoveries at Triumph with bulk tonnage style gold-copper-molybdenite mineralisation. Similar examples of these bulk tonnage style systems in Queensland include the Kidston (3.7Moz Au), Mt Leyshon (3.5Moz Au) and Ravenswood (3Moz Au) mines.
months has now intersected high-grade gold mineralisation on four main targets with
Drilling programmes have taken place
excellent scope to expand that further with
on four targets so far across the 15km²
the current drilling programme,” reveals
gold system, all of which have produced
Schreck.
enticing drill intersections. For example, drill intercepts at the Bald Hill prospect returned
“Those high-grade intersections are really
a result of 15 metres @ 10.3g/t Au from a
driving our confidence of putting out a
depth of 9 metres.
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MINING | Metal Bank | ASX
intercepts of 10 metres @ 26.9g/t Au from 51
2017/18 drilling programme
metres, Big Hans delivered 18 metres @ 4g/t
“We have 5,000 metres of drilling planned
Au from surface and Super Hans returned 3
over December and January,” says Schreck.
metres @ 6.5g/t Au from 6 metres depth.
“We expect that initial results will be released
Meanwhile, New Constitution produced
from early 2018 with the primary focus on Metal Bank has a cash balance of $5.5 million
advancing the existing near surface high-
following the completion of a rights issue
grade gold targets and to commence initial
and share placement, providing the company
drilling on other targets in the existing
a strong financial basis to build on these
prospect pipeline.”
intercepts with further drilling, which will target a maiden resource announcement for
A large portion of the drilling will take place
the project.
at Big Hans and Super Hans, which have only received limited drilling so far, with
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further infill drilling to be pursued at New
Metal Bank will also work on a fifth target
Constitution, where known mineralisation
named Advance, which has only just had soils
extends over a surface distance of greater
completed to date, however Schreck says the
than 250 metres and to a depth of over 150
prospect has a ‘lovely 100 to 1000 pbb gold
metres.
soil anomaly running through it’.
At Bald Hill, Metal Bank has already been
“There are several historical mines at
able to show there is 2.4km of strike on
Advance with records indicating underground
the mineralised structure with just 400
mining to over 100 metres depth with an
metres of this zone drill tested to date, so
average mined grade of 90g/t Au; and has
the programme there will look to extend
never been drill tested. We will certainly
the known mineralisation along that strike
be drilling Advance as part of the current
distance.
programme and this is a great example of how under-explored the project is which
MINING | Metal Bank | ASX
ResourceGlobal GlobalNetwork Network Resource translates into a fantastic opportunity to add significant value for Metal Bank.” Beyond the defining of a resource in mid2018, the company will begin to craft a scoping study based around multiple open pits on shallow high-grade resources potentially feeding a central processing facility. However, while Metal Bank’s primary focus remains on developing a near term highgrade open pit mining scenario, there is confidence amongst the team that there could be the potential to follow deposits down to depth to sustain underground mining operations. The style of high-grade mineralisation present across the project is very likely to be connected to the mother intrusion that is driving the widespread mineralisation, according to Schreck. “There are many examples of this style of mineralisation in Queensland. We have got good lateral and depth extent on these highgrade structures and ultimately if you follow them along or down they should lead into the bulk tonnage gold system that is driving the whole system. “The high-grade mineralisation is luring and will certainly open up some doors to near term production, but the bulk tonnage mineralisation potential really does open up some fantastic upside on the Triumph project,” says an enthusiastic Schreck.
MINING | Metal Bank | ASX
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The Eidsvold project
based on the fact that during the early
Metal Bank’s other major development is
mining days of the 19th and 20th centuries,
currently taking the backseat as the company
prospectors only had limited visual and
focuses its energy on progressing Triumph,
panning techniques, which were able to
but nonetheless the Eidsvold project is held
identify outcropping mineralisation but
in very much the same stead owing to its
failed to detect any deeper or undercover
striking geological similarities to Triumph.
mineralisation.
“When we originally completed the project
However, now armed with several modern
generation across Queensland to identify
methods including airborne and ground
these two projects, our criteria was to look
geophysical systems, advanced exploration
around historical goldfields for opportunities
models and modern drilling techniques,
and both Triumph and Eidsvold were centred
Metal Bank aims to open up new project
on historical goldfields that were surrounded
opportunities across and around these
by sediment cover, potentially concealing the
underexplored historical goldfields.
true extent of the gold mineralisation.” Metal Bank’s preliminary work at Eidsvold has The reasoning behind this approach is
already been able to show it is part of a fertile
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Tony Schreck, managing director intrusive complex spanning 250km², which
point now where we are going to commit
has never been recognised before as 90% of
to an airborne EM and magnetics survey
the complex is concealed by sediment cover.
across the whole intrusive complex and that will prioritise our targets ahead of a second
“In the last three months we’ve completed
phase of drilling in mid-2018.”
one of the first drilling programmes on the project. Using the regional spaced
Over the next 12 months, Schreck and his
geophysical data we were able to target a
team at Metal Bank will be doing everything
magnetic low and intersect 3 metres @ 2.3g/t
they can to accomplish the company
Au under 10 metres of sediment cover and
maxim of ‘growth after discovery’, with the
that is a fantastic outcome.
establishment of a maiden resource figure in mid-2018 the next achievable step on the
“That result has transformed Eidsvold to the
path to delivering shareholder growth.
j
Published by Anderson Murray Media Ltd
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