Miramar (ASX:M2R) digs deeper in 2023

Last year Miramar Resources conducted multiple drill campaigns across its projects in Western Australia, with around 75 per cent of funding going directly into the ground. With a greater understanding of the potential of all the projects within its portfolio, plans are afoot to unlock value for shareholders with a clear strategy planned for 2023.

Executive chairman and seasoned campaigner Allan Kelly and his team are intent on creating value for its tightly held register of shareholders, systematically exploring for gold, nickel, copper, rare earth elements (REE) and platinum group elements (PGE) across its diverse suite of projects beginning in the heart of Western Australia’s Goldfields and extending northward into the emerging Gascoyne.

Miramar arguably owns some of the best real estates in Western Australia and is backed by a very experienced and talented team with a track record of successful discovery, development, and production.

The exploration programmes will start in the eastern Goldfields with deeper drill testing for gold and nickel bedrock targets at the Gidji JV Project before moving to the Glandore Project, where bedrock testing for gold will continue on the lake after the completion of a detailed magnetic survey.

Another focus sees the Company in the Gascoyne region, where it will seek potential company-making Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) mineralisation at its Whaleshark Project and test targets for REE-bearing intrusions at Dooley Downs and nickel-copper-PGE at Mt Vernon, both part of the Bangemall Project area.

“Any one of our projects could be a company-maker and we are excited about what 2023 holds for our shareholders,” Mr Kelly said.

Gidji JV (80%)

And It is fair to say that Miramar is more than a little excited about its Gidji project, which is prospective for both gold and nickel, and located just 15 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, nestled between the giant Kalgoorlie Super Pit and the Paddington gold mine and processing plant.

Miramar has been actively exploring the Project since listing on the ASX in late 2020 and has discovered several targets, including “Marylebone”, which has the same geological sequence as the nearby 4-million-ounce Paddington gold deposit.

Mr Kelly said that in addition to Marylebone, the Company has discovered and outlined several other large aircore gold footprints parallel to Marylebone, including Blackfriars and Highway, – raising the likelihood of the Gidji Project becoming a potential new gold camp.

“The Marylebone target at Gidji bears the same geology, structural setting and scale as the Paddington gold deposit to the north, but what sets Gidji apart is the four or more parallel potentially mineralised structures instead of just one – and that really excites us,” he said.

“If we found a quarter of a Paddington we would be very happy.”

While Miramar is targeting a one-million-ounce system in the bedrock beneath the paleochannel at Gidji, the Company recently outlined an initial shallow gold Exploration Target of 1.3 to 3.1 million tonnes, at a grade of 1.2 – 1.5g/t Au, for the Marylebone target.

The JORC-compliant Exploration Target is currently restricted to the shallow supergene and alluvial gold mineralisation encountered within the Marylebone target alone.

According to the target’s parameters, the shallow Marylebone site could contain 55,000 – 155,000 ounces of gold and appears similar to the historic Panglo gold deposit, which reportedly had a maiden supergene gold resource of approximately 117,000 ounces in 1987.

Mr  Kelly said the initial Exploration Target underscored the significant gold endowment potential of the Gidji JV Project.

“Our primary aim at Gidji is to discover one or more large bedrock gold deposits, similar to the large Paddington deposit, immediately north of our project.

“After our first aircore drilling campaigns at Gidji, we recognised that there could also be significant shallow supergene and/or alluvial gold mineralisation which could potentially be developed in the short term, given the proximity to the Goldfields Highway and various gold processing operations.

“The amount of shallow supergene and/or alluvial gold discovered to date, along with multiple other targets, also implies a significant bedrock source nearby which is yet to be discovered.”

In addition to the significant gold discovery potential, Gidji is also showing nickel potential as the Project contains multiple ultramafic units, including the “Highway Ultramafic”, which hosts the historic Scotia nickel mine and Auroch Minerals Limited’s “Saints” nickel deposit further north.

Recent re-analysis of multiple aircore holes produced significant platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) assays associated with high nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) results, increasing the potential for the presence of nickel sulphide mineralisation.

“We are pretty excited that we could have a deposit similar to the Scotia or Saints nickel deposits sitting undercover at Gidji and we will test some bedrock targets with deeper drilling in 2023,” Mr Kelly adds.

“With both gold and nickel potential, the Gidji project gets bigger with each drill hole and we can’t wait to get back out there this year.”

Glandore

Like Gidji, Glandore is an under-explored gold opportunity with historic high-grade gold hits and a huge gold footprint on the lake, just 40 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie.

“Glandore has similar geology and structure to the Majestic and Imperial deposits (~0.5Moz Au) 5km south,” Mr Kelly said.

“At Majestic, a granite has intruded into earlier rocks and there are a number of north-east-trending mineralised structures.

“It’s a very similar structure at Glandore, potentially with a more prospective host rock sequence of dolerite and gabbro.

“And there is a very large shallow aircore gold footprint stretching over about 5km on the lake and we believe there is potential for significant bedrock gold mineralisation at depth.”

After completing a magnetic survey to hone targets, Miramar is looking forward to conducting further bedrock testing for gold on the lake at Glandore.

Whaleshark

Iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) is the target at Miramar’s Whaleshark project located 40 kilometres east of Onslow in the Gascoyne region of WA.

The Project is characterised by Proterozoic banded iron formation (BIF) and granite beneath younger sediments of the Carnarvon Basin.

In 2021, the Company outlined surface geochemical anomalies potentially indicative of buried IOCG mineralisation, and subsequent shallow aircore drilling outlined geochemical anomalism at the top of the basement, similar to that seen at known IOCG deposits such as Ernest Henry and Prominent Hill.

The Company believes these similarities significantly increase Miramar’s chances of an extensive IOCG discovery, and one would have to add points for Mr Kelly’s significant experience in IOCG exploration.

“I worked on the Whaleshark project while working for the former Western Mining Corporation in the 1990’s and managed exploration for IOCG deposits in South Australia for Avoca Resources in the 2000’s after the discovery of Prominent Hill,” he said.

“We are looking for something in the order of 100Mt @ 1% copper and 1g/t gold which would obviously be hugely significant for our shareholders.”

 

Bangemall

Miramar was a first mover in the emerging Gascoyne mineral province. It will focus on confirming REE potential at its Dooley Downs project and nickel-copper PGE potential at its Mt Vernon target in 2023.

“The last 12 to 18 months have seen extensive tenement pegging and new REE discoveries by some of our neighbours. We have many of the same indicators at Dooley Downs and plan to develop these targets further over coming months.”
The Eden Bore target at Dooley Downs is a priority REE target for Miramar,” Mr Kelly finishes.

Conclusion

The Miramar team is focused on creating shareholder wealth and discovering a significant deposit – or two! The Company owns some of the best real estates in Western Australia and has a dedicated, talented, and experienced team exploring and systematically testing numerous highly prospective targets. Considering the work done in the past two years since listing and the mineralised footprints the team has already outlined, the potential for a significant discovery is high, and the potential increase in value to shareholders during 2023 could be huge.

Fundamental Data

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