Investors have smiled on Artemis Resources today following a significant increase in the JORC 2012 resource at its Carlow Castle project in the Western Pilbara Region of Western Australia.
Indicated and Inferred resources, at 0.05% Co cut-off grade, have increased to 2.3 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne Au, 0.11% Co, 0.5% Cu and 1.6 g/t Ag within a global resource of 4.5Mt at 0.9g/t Au, 0.07% Co, 0.4% Cu & 1.3 g/t Ag.
The resource estimate covers the Quod Est, Carlow Castle South and Carlow Castle South-East (Cobalt/Gold/Copper) Prospects.
The stock gained 1.2c, 0r 6%, to be trading at 21.2c in late Wednesday afternoon trade.
Carlow Castle is located about 20 km southeast of Karratha and only 30 km north-east of Artemis’ Radio Hill processing plant, via gazetted roads.
Work has also commenced on converting the portion of Exploration Licence E47/1797 covering the deposits to Mining Leases.
A diamond drilling programme is planned for geotechnical analysis for detailed open pit planning purposes and for advanced metallurgical recovery optimisation and plant operating cost planning.
We have seen a significant boost to tonnage in this latest resource estimate at Carlow Castle and we believe that this Project has the potential to be a significant new Cobalt province in Australia based upon recent exploration results,” Artemis’ Executive Chairman David Lenigas said.
“With the world cobalt prices now at US$79,750 a tonne (LME, 26 Jan 2018) (~AUD $98,000 a tonne), our Carlow Castle Project’s potential is looking very attractive. These three deposits reported on today are only a few of the many high priority targets now identified by Artemis over 50 km2.
“Apart from plans to continue drilling to expand the resource base further, we have now engaged consultants to run a fast-track scoping study to assess the potential economics of processing this material through our nearby and soon to be re-commissioned Radio Hill treatment plant.
Mr Lenigas said Radio Hill plant upgrades were progressing well with continued interest from international “Cobalt trading houses” for Artemis’s conflict-free Cobalt.
The Company is also progressing towards having the planned works, which includes the addition of a 70-100 tonne per hour gravity gold recovery circuit to the current sulphide processing circuit, completed and fully operational by the end of June 2018.
Open pit optimisation studies and scheduling have also begun.