NATIVE MINERAL RESOURCES HOLDINGS LIMITED Native Mineral Resources Holdings Limited provided an update on drilling operations at the Company's 100%-owned Helios Project, located in the Nullarbor region of Western Australia. NMR reports that the Helios_DDH002 EIS co-funded drill hole has been completed to a total depth of 1020.3m, with initial observations from this drill hole confirming the presence of further pervasive, hematite-dominated IOCG-style alteration system. The following announcement provides representative photos of the drill core recovered from between 850m depth and the EOH at 1020.3m depth.
Diamond drill core is being prepared for sampling and assay with initial results expected in October. The results from the two diamond drill holes completed at Helios are considered by NMR to be a phenomenal result with the identification of a hematite-dominated alterations system. The results from the first Helios_DDH001 drill hole indicate the presence of an IOCG target but this has now been backed up by the intense alteration also identified in the EIS co-funded drill hole Helios_DDH002.
NMR have now proven alteration in drill core located over 900m apart indicating that the alteration system is even larger than first considered. Diamond drill hole HELIOS_DDH002 was terminated at a total depth of 1020.3m which is one of the deepest drill holes ever completed in this truly frontier region of Australia. The initial identification of alteration is a ground-breaking result for a terrane/geological province (Madura Province) with very little previous drilling.
Initial visual inspection of drill core has revealed the presence of multiphase alteration including minerals hematite, magnetite, pyrite, biotite, chlorite, sericite. First-pass observations and interpreted alteration paragenesis indicate that locally potassic alteration and magnetite alteration is followed by hematite, hematite-pyrite, and pyrite-quartz- magnetite veins. Detailed petrography will be completed in order to confirm the field observations.
The observations presented here and in previous updates from the Helios project help support similarities with other well-studied and documented occurrences of IOCG alteration, in particular, Ernest Henry located in Northern Queensland. NMR has been granted three tenements in the Nullarbor region of SE Western Australia(E69/3849, E69/3850 and E69/3852) (Figure 5). The three tenements are located over potential iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG)- and porphyry- style mineralisation.
As reported on 16th May and 2022, NMR completed its maiden diamond drilling program at the Helios Project and intersected what the company considers to be significant IOCG-style alteration including felsic breccias with hematite, magnetite, and pervasive hematite alteration of host granites. A common signature or "fingerprint" of IOCG systems is the close association between magnetic highs and gravity highs. Deposits such as Ernest Henry, Prominent Hill, and Brumby are examples where this correlation is observed.
As described above, NMR is targeting the central gravity high derived from the modelling of a ground-based gravity survey over the Helios project area. NMR have just completed drilling its second diamond drill hole. This announcement is an update only to inform of the end of the drilling with several photos of the drill core shown from HELIOS_DDH002 as drilled between the 5th of September at approximately 800m depth and the end of hole at 1,020.3m depth.
