Galileo Mining Ltd(ASX: GAL) has identified significant intersections of palladium from the Company’s existing drill hole database through target generation work at the Norseman Project in Western Australia.
Managing Director, Brad Underwood, said multiple drill ready targets have been developed through geological interpretation of the prospective contact zones which host palladium in association with copper sulphide mineralisation.
Our ongoing review of the Norseman Project has delivered results with the recognition of the outstanding prospectivity for palladium in the region,” Mr Underwood said.
“The existing drill results demonstrate the quality of the project and have provided the basis for a new understanding of the mineralising processes. This has led to the development of robust drill targets with the potential for a significant palladium discovery.
“We will be aggressively pursuing this exceptional opportunity in conjunction with our search for nickel sulphide deposits at the Fraser Range which includes upcoming diamond drilling at the Delta Blues prospect.”
Drilling completed in 2016 by Galileo beneath the cobalt-nickel laterite resource at Mt Thirsty intersected a previously unrecognised zone of sulphide containing highly anomalous levels of palladium, platinum, copper, and nickel.
This sulphide zone occurs within an ultramafic rock unit interpreted to be an apophysis from the Mt Thirsty sill which itself is visible as a pronounced high in the magnetic map to the east.
The stratigraphy at the drill hole location is flat and the sharp magnetic contact is believed to represent the position at which the sill crosscuts stratigraphy. This contact between the intruding sill and the flat lying stratigraphy is the prospective target zone with potential for higher grade mineralisation.
The grade within the sulphide zone increases towards the east, supporting the idea that more mineralisation occurs within the target zone.
The prospective contact zone is easily traced to the north over 5km of strike and represents a substantial target. There is no record of any historic exploration for palladium/platinum along this basal contact position.
Galileo assay results are further supplemented by historical results. Drilling at the Mission Sill in the year 2000 by Anaconda Nickel was designed to investigate the development of nickel laterite resources in the area.
Seven drill holes in the original program intercepted anomalous palladium and platinum within the near surface saprolite overlying the ultramafic component of the Mission Sill. Later drilling by Australian Gold Resources (AGR) focussed on the platinum potential in fresh rock of the ultramafic unit.
Subsequent drilling by Galileo also concentrated on platinum intercepts within the ultramafic as well as drilling out the cobalt- nickel laterite resource to JORC compliant resource standards.
The potential for palladium at the Mission Sill has now been recognised after a review of the data showed the existence of significant thicknesses of disseminated sulphide mineralisation (up to 5% in patches) at the contact between the ultramafic and mafic units of the Mission Sill.
This contact position matches the location of multiple zones of anomalous mineralisation up to 74 metres thick containing approximately 0.2g/t palladium. The possibility of higher-grade mineralisation along this contact position is interpreted to be considerable, especially where the geometry and relative exhumation of the sill changes along strike.
The prospective contact zone continues over 10km to the north with additional prospectivity to the south on the southern flank of an offset ultramafic block. This southern block also contains a cobalt-nickel laterite resource and was the subject of drilling by Galileo in 2018 to investigate the relationship between Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) and cobalt in the regolith.
This southern prospect contains the highest-grade palladium intercepted in weathered rock (MTRC112), and the highest grades of rhodium in MSSD001. The contact zone between ultramafic and mafic units has not yet been drilled at this location and is a priority target.
Two further drill ready targets occur on the Mission Sill where soil sampling completed late in 2020 highlighted two separate zones of anomalous palladium with maximum soil values of 0.31g/t Pd and 0.16g/t Pd respectively