Geophysical surveys over the Mangaroon North project area in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region have delineated a series of high-priority rare earth element (REE) carbonatite targets for owner Venus Metals Corporation.
MagSpec Airborne Surveys was contracted to run a high-resolution magnetic and radiometric survey with 50 metre line spacings for a total 3,000 line kilometres in December to define new target areas at the underexplored tenement.
The data identified eight ironstone targets over a combined strike length of 10 kilometres in an area considered prospective for ironstone-hosted REE and carbonatites similar to those at the Yangibana deposit owned by Hastings Technology Metals and the Mangaroon project owned by Dreadnought Resources.
Compelling target
Venus said the most compelling target was a 6km-long narrow unit of moderate magnetic susceptibility which appears to be transgressive to stratigraphy, suggesting a late-stage emplacement of a magnetic source rock along a fracture plane.
Of particular interest is a discrete circular thorium anomaly as well as an anomalous potassium response which appears intermittently over the 6km area and may indicate a late-stage intrusive.
Several other discrete, narrow and strike-extensive magnetic responses were also highlighted and interpreted to represent ironstone units which warrant field inspection and sampling.
Importantly, many of the targets are located close to the Edmund Fault, which is a crustal-scale structure that is believed to have acted as a pathway for carbonatitic or ferro-carbonatitic melts.
Base metal and gold
Venus said 3D magnetic inversion modelling was completed to assist the defining and location of ironstone bodies for targeting within the survey.
Assessment of the magnetic data for base metal and gold mineralisation has provided additional target areas for follow up investigation.
Target evaluation
An extensive field sampling program has been scheduled over the coming months to evaluate high-priority targets identified by the survey and by previous work.
An aeromagnetic and radiometric survey using 50m line spacing is also scheduled to be flown at Mangaroon North by mid-year.
