Catalina Resources (ASX: CTN) has been granted Exploration Licences, E38/3697 and E38/3698 in the Laverton district of Western Australia,
The ~45 sq. km (15 sub-block tenement) is located 20km southeast of Laverton within the Laverton Gold Province, an exceptionally mineralised terrain in the Eastern Goldfields.
The region hosts several world class deposits of gold, nickel, and rare earth element (REE) including Sunrise Dam (>10Moz Au), Wallaby (> 8Moz Au), Windara Nickel (combined 85K tonnes nickel sulphide) and the Mt Weld REE deposit, one of the highest-grade rare-earth deposits in the world (Mineral Resource of 54.7 Mt @ 5.3% TREO).
E38/3697 is the largest tenement in a group of seven tenements that form Catalina’s Laverton Project. The tenement has been granted following prolonged negotiations to obtain access agreements with neighbouring parties that hold overlapping miscellaneous licenses.
Catalina has identified several very compelling gold, nickel and REE target areas within E38/3697. The targets were generated by integrating detailed aeromagnetic images, geological interpretations, ground gravity images and historical exploration data. Reference was also made to genetic models developed for neighbouring mineral deposits. The compilation revealed that historical drilling within the tenement has been sporadic and non-systematic with significant geochemical anomalies not followed up.
Whilst negotiating the access agreements to allow grant of the tenement Catalina engaged geophysical consultants Southern Geoscience to conduct additional processing and modelling of the aeromagnetic data to improve understanding of the lithological and structural setting of the targets generated. Modelling was also conducted on discrete magnetic anomalies that could represent small granitic stocks related to the large intrusion at Mt. Weld that hosts a REE deposit.
The majority of the tenement is covered by alluvium and colluvium with only a small area of outcrop in the northwest corner. This has hindered verification and prioritisation of targets in the field placing greater emphasis on the detailed analysis and modelling of the aeromagnetic data.
Catalina is working on finalising a drilling programme for the first quarter of 2024 which include organising Heritage surveys/ clearances, POW approval etc.
