Native Mineral Resources (ASX: NMR) explore upside at Maneater Hill

Native Mineral Resources will diamond drill known ore-bearing precious and base metal breccias at the centre of the Maneater Hill Breccia, located approximately 100km west of Cairns and 35km northeast of the established mining town of Chillagoe in Northern Queensland.

Existing information on the breccia pipe points towards a high potential for breccia-hosted copper and gold mineralisation below the predominantly silver, lead and zinc mineralisation identified near surface and in a single diamond drill hole completed in 1995.

The drilling will target gold and copper mineralisation below the zone of silver and base metal mineralisation identified in previous shallow drilling based on last exploration results from the area, including surface samples exhibiting grades of >2 g/t Au, 65 g/t Ag and up to 14.9 % Pb.

Map showing the location of the exploration permit 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 proximal to existing mining infrastructure at Chillagoe, Mareeba and Cairns.

Excitingly, a single, previously drilled diamond hole was shot at a dip angle of approximately 50-53 degrees across the breccia, exhibiting over 80 per cent sulfides and up to 100pc massive sulfides in sections (e.g. @240m down hole).

“NMR is delighted to announce that it is forging ahead with plans to drill the high-potential Maneater Breccia in October,” Managing Director Blake Cannavo said

“Our technical team is extremely excited about the potential upside of this project owing to the previous identification of silver, copper and gold in the upper levels of the breccia.”

Historical drilling results

Drilling at the Queensland tenements

About the Maneater Hill Breccia

Maneater Hill Breccia is a proven sulfide-bearing, intrusion-related breccia pipe which occurs as a significant topographic high (Maneater Hill) centrally located within the tenement. Existing information on the breccia pipe points towards a high potential for breccia-hosted copper and gold mineralisation below the predominantly silver, lead and zinc mineralisation identified near surface and in a single diamond drill hole completed in 1995. Existing assays from historical drilling include silver grades of up to 15.8ppm Ag, copper grades up to 1810ppm Cu, Zinc grades of up to 9330ppm Zn, up to 10ppm Mo, and increasing gold grades up to 0.05ppm Au.