Fraser Range Metals Group (ASX: FRN) has applied for tenements across the under-explored Mallina gold province in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
The highly-prospective tenure is situated in the Mallina Basin, along strike from the Mt Berghaus and Hemi owned by De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) and confirmed to host a resource base of 2.2 million ounces of gold.
Most of the resource is within or proximal to the Mallina shear zone, while Hemi is about 9km southwest and proximal to the northeast-southwest striking Berghaus shear zone which is comprised of a suite of parallel shears.
The Berghaus shear zone contains the Mt Berghaus deposit and the smaller Cookes Hill gold deposit owned by Haoma Mining.
Basin geology
The Mallina Basin is the largest Archaean sedimentary basin in the Pilbara by strike extent and volume.
Several suites of granitic intrusion are present and typically predate mineralisation.
They are believed to fracture during a mineralising event to host large-scale gold systems.
Geologist Damien Keys said the recent discovery of the Hemi deposit highlights the potential for additional discoveries in Fraser’s new tenure_._
“This ground is highly-prospective due to the simple fact that it sits on a fertile structure which is under-explored,” he said.
“The Mallina gold province sits on a structural and intrusive corridor some 100km long and up to 10km wide [and] Fraser’s leases are situated on major regional shear zones near granite-greenstone margins.”
Planned exploration
Fraser said it would compile geochemical sampling from prior exploration reports and conduct field checking of the area to check outcrops and mapping, as well as any target areas of interest and the style of cover present.
Aircore drilling has also been planned to test Berghaus Shear targets with an assay suite of gold and gold pathfinders.
The company said drilling could involve a program of 120 holes for 6,000m, assuming a 50m average hole depth.
At mid-morning, shares in Fraser were up 18.18% to $0.026.
