Neighbouring the Paterson Project in the Eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia, the Oakover Project comprises ten granted exploration licences and one mining lease application (“MLA”) covering a total area of about 820 sq.km. Six tenements are held 100% by the Group, with the remaining four tenements and the MLA subject to the “Carawine JV” in joint venture with Black Canyon Ltd ("Black Canyon") (ASX: BCA). The Oakover Project tenements are considered prospective for manganese, copper, iron and gold.
The Carawine JV is a joint venture between the Company and Black Canyon, with Black Canyon acting as the manager of the JV. The respective interests of each party to the joint venture are Black Canyon 75% and Carawine 25%, with both parties maintaining their interests and contributing to joint venture expenditure. Black Canyon is acting as the manager of the JV.
Oakover and Paterson Project tenement location plan.
Carawine (100%)
Carawine’s 100%-owned tenements within the Oakover Project include two tenements considered prospective primarily for manganese (Davis and Enacheddong) and one considered prospective primarily for lode gold deposits (Rooney’s Find). Three additional tenements considered prospective primarily for copper, plus manganese (Bocrabee, Pattos and Bocrabee Hill) were recently relinquished by Black Canyon from the Carawine JV and returned to the Company.
Target generation activities comprising field reconnaissance and reviews of historic exploration data have identified the “Bootleg” manganese prospect on the Davis tenement, and several manganese occurrences on the Enacheddong tenement (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022). Target generation work will also continue for the three recently acquired tenements, including over the historic Bocrabee copper occurrence on the Bocrabee tenement.
Davis (E46/1375)
The Davis exploration licence is situated in the western Oakover Basin, containing extensive outcrop of Carawine Dolomite (the host unit to Consolidated Minerals’ Woodie-Woodie high-grade manganese deposits), in-situ chert breccia and minor transported manganese-group breccia in an area considered highly prospective for manganese deposits. Previous explorers had identified four areas of manganese outcrop within the Davis tenement, hosted by Carawine Dolomite and/or chert breccia. Of these, one new prospect named “Bootleg” has been identified by Carawine as a potential drill target.
The Bootleg prospect comprises multiple manganese outcrops in chert breccia above Carawine Dolomite, located on a low ridge along an arcuate trend extending over 500m. Six rock chip samples reported by previous explorers from the outcrop returned values ranging from 15.2% Mn to 56.4% Mn, with an average of 38.2% Mn (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022). A program of detailed mapping to refine the outcrop and site drill holes is planned for this prospect as a priority.
Bootleg prospect aerial image, and inset photo, showing manganese outcrop trend over 500m.
Enacheddong (E46/1376)
The Enacheddong exploration licence is in the eastern Oakover Basin, containing extensive outcrop of Carawine Dolomite, chert breccia, and manganese group siltstone and shale. The tenement adjoins Carawine’s Fig Tree tenements (subject to the Carawine JV) to the east. There are five recorded manganese occurrences within the tenement at Black Stripe, Black Stripe East and Black Stripe West, hosted by Carawine Dolomite; and Eastwood and Eastwood South hosted by Manganese Group siltstone and shale. First-pass RC drilling programs at the Black Stripe manganese occurrences, and costeaning and sampling of the Eastwood manganese occurrences by previous explorers have returned encouraging results to date (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022).
The Enacheddong targets will be advanced at a lower priority to the Bootleg prospect, as will further mapping and sampling of the Davis and Enacheddong tenement areas to explore for additional targets. These programs are expected to commence in line with the typical exploration field season in the Oakover region in 2023.
Carawine JV (Carawine 25%)
Black Canyon commenced exploration on the Carawine JV tenements in 2021, focusing on a review of previous exploration and field assessment of the Flanagan Bore manganese prospect. This work confirmed the presence of extensive surface manganese mineralisation, with historic RC drilling returning well-mineralised intercepts over a broad area.
Subsequent phases of RC and diamond drilling by Black Canyon identified significant thicknesses and grades of near-surface manganese mineralisation at the LR1 and FB3 deposits, and shallow manganese mineralisation at the FB5 and FB1 anomalies.
In 2022 Black Canyon released a positive Scoping Study for the Flanagan Bore manganese project, based on the April 2022 Indicated Mineral Resource of 104Mt @ 10.5% manganese ("Mn"), containing 11Mt of Mn (refer Black Canyon’s ASX announcements 13 April and 18 August 2022).
This was followed by an application for a mining lease over the FB3 and LR1 deposits and associated infrastructure (refer Black Canyon’s ASX announcement dated 21 November 2022) and the release of an updated, current Mineral Resource for the FB3 and LR1 deposits at Flanagan Bore of 171 Mt @ 10.3% Mn (Measured and Indicated) containing 17.7Mt of Mn (refer table below and Black Canyon’s ASX announcement dated 24 November 2022)
Drilling programs to support the updated Mineral Resource (refer Black Canyon’s ASX announcements 13 July, 7 September and 15 September 2022), positive results from early-stage High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate (“HPMSM”) leaching test work (refer Black Canyon’s ASX announcements 12 October and 5 December 2022) and positive process metallurgical test work results from Flanagan Bore samples (refer Black Canyon’s ASX announcement 17 April 2023) have also been completed.
Flanagan Bore Project - FB3 & LR1 Mineral Resource outlines and future resource potential upside at FB1-FB2 and FB5 - FB6 (Carawine JV, source Black Canyon, November 2022).
Please note: these pages include information that relates to Exploration Results and Mineral Resources prepared and first disclosed under the JORC Code (2012). The information was extracted from the Company’s previous ASX Announcements which can be viewed in the Investor Information & News section of this website by clicking here.
