ASQ has secured a strategic position in the Biranup Zone of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny located in the south-west of Western Australia in the shires of Plantagenet and the City of Albany. ASQ has applied for four tenements totalling 1,603 km2 (see Figure 1).
The Company has identified an anomalous drill hole from a 2015 Iluka Exploration Pty Ltd (“Iluka”) mineral sands exploration program. Iluka drilled 39 broad spaced air-core holes within the application area looking for mineral sand deposits in the overlying tertiary sediments. Iluka routinely assayed the end of hole (“EOH”) samples wherever the hole ended in crystalline basement rocks. Drill hole W00324 was logged as ending in dark orange brown saprolite at a depth of 28.5 – 30 m. The Company considers the copper, nickel and chromium results to be highly anomalous. Key element assay results for the W00324 EOH sample are given in Table 1.
Easting
Northing
From
To
Cu
Ni
Co
Cr
Zn
mGDA94
metres
ppm
%
602024
6172779
28.5
30
974
0.79
832
0.52
523
Anglo American Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd (“Anglo”) conducted exploration for base metals in 2000 across the area of interest including surface sampling, geophysics, air-core and RC drilling without making a significant discovery. Interestingly, W00324 is located 240 m from a 54 m deep Anglo air-core drill hole that appears to have been part of a two hole program designed to test an airborne magnetics or surface geochemistry target that had been followed up with ground-based magnetics (see Figure 2). The Anglo drill hole failed to return significant assay results. The Company believes Anglo may have missed the target with their wide spaced drilling.
The Company considers the application area has potential for Nickel-Copper magmatic sulphide mineralisation associated with mafic-ultramafic intrusions emplaced into granulite facies country rocks. Initial assessment suggests the basement rocks in the application area are mostly under tertiary sedimentary cover. Suite 10, 295 Rokeby Road, SUBIACO WA 6008 3 Phone: +61 8 9200 8200 Fax: +61 8 9200 8299 www.asqg.com.au ASQ is reviewing historic exploration reports and regional open file datasets that cover the application ground to plan for initial exploration programs. Upon gaining ground access ASQ plans to conduct close spaced air-core drilling aimed to validate the anomalous Iluka result and improve the understanding of the host geology. The Company will also focus on developing an exploration strategy for the greater application area that may include considering opportunities to joint venture the exploration project with a suitably qualified group.
