Galileo Mining (ASX: GAL) continues to tantalise investors with hints of new mineral finds of interest at its Callisto prospect in the Norseman project in the WA goldfields.
So far this year the explorer has revealed that drilling at Callisto has encountered copper, gold, nickel, platinum, palladium and rhodium, a rare metal only found in South Africa and Russia.
The news earlier this year has seen Galileo continue drilling at Callisto to produce encouraging hints of more of the same, but this time with a hint of cobalt.
Yesterday’s statement to the ASX from Galileo was the third this week about its campaign at Callisto.
The statement on Wednesday confirmed the palladium-platinum-gold-rhodium-copper-nickel discovery in the western most drilling of the prospect to date. That was after Monday’s announcement of the discovery of ‘disseminated sulphides to the north.
The company said in Thursday’s statement to the ASX that assays from the first massive sulphides intersected at Callisto had defined a new target zone in the area in addition to the palladium-platinum-gold-rhodium-copper-nickel discovery.
The assays revealed what the company claimed was a new style of magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt hosting the potential for high-grade zones within the growing mineralised system.
Results from the program included 2.2 metres at 0.5% nickel, 1.92% copper, 0.12% cobalt and 0.1 grams per tonne (g/t) palladium from 189.8 metres, including 1.2 metres at 0.77% nickel, 2.48% copper, 0.18% cobalt and 0.14 g/t palladium from 190.6 metres.
Galileo said this program marked its first sighting of significant cobalt at Callisto and the first massive sulphide intersection to date. This could indicate the possibility of a separate magmatic source from the palladium-rich lower zones.
Galileo Managing Director Brad Underwood said this style of metal enrichment demonstrated the potential in the area.
“The abundance of new results is an extremely positive sign for the prospectivity at both the Callisto discovery and the area immediately to the north, where we are currently drilling,” Mr Underwood said.
“Magmatic sulphide mineralisation containing nickel-copper-cobalt is a rare find, and we will undertake downhole EM surveying to look for the source of the intercept.”
Galileo said it will now launch a downhole electromagnetic survey to model the geometry of the massive sulphide unit ahead of follow-up drilling.
The market liked that and pushed the shares up 4.5% to $1.255
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On the other hand, investors didn’t like the update from Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) about its Greater Carlow prospect and sold the shares down 21% to just 4.1 cents.
Artemis released an inferred mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Greater Carlow project in Western Australia’s West Pilbara region.
The company told the ASX yesterday the gold-copper-cobalt project has a total inferred MRE of 8.74 million tonnes at 2.5 grams a tonne gold for 704,000 ounces of gold equivalent, or 1.3 g/t gold, 0.73% copper and 0.09% cobalt, for 374,000 ounces of gold, 64,000t of copper and 8000t of cobalt).
This comprised an open pit resource of 7.25 million tonnes at 2.4 g/t gold equivalent for 557,000 ounces using a 0.7 g/t cut-off grade, and an underground resource of 1.49 million tonnes at 3.1 g/t gold equivalent for 146,000 ounces using a two g/t cut-off grade.
Artemis Executive Director Alastair Clayton said in the statement the company had established a “robust, credible, high-grade multi-metal resource” that it planned to continue growing.
“Importantly, this resource has taken into consideration recent industry cost escalation and still returned robust results. There is an adage used in mining that ‘grade is king’; we believe this is as relevant today as it ever was,” Mr Clayton said.
“The next phase at Greater Carlow is to drill and add more high-grade tonnes to the open pit and underground resources, including the high-grade Keel Zone, which is not included in this resource statement.”
The high-grade resource remains open in multiple directions, and further exploration will focus on growing the open pit and underground resources further.
The project is 35 kilometres south of Karratha and is one of around a dozen gold discoveries in the west Pilbara, dominated by De Grey’s huge Mallina complex of deposits and its main asset, the Hemi find which is closer to the coast and to the north.
