Junior explorer Peako has confirmed that drilling at the Eastman platinum group elements (PGE) project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region has increased the strike length of higher-grade mineralisation.
A total of 10 reverse circulation holes were drilled at the Brumby prospect for 1240 metres, with two additional holes drilled west of the project’s Waterloo prospect to test undercover for the location and nature of PGE mineralisation within the ultramafic host unit.
Most of the holes returned anomalous PGE results, extending the strike length of known mineralisation from 300m to more than 1.1 kilometre.
Drilling also increased the strike length of higher-grade mineralisation from 180m to 680m.
Best assays
Significant results were 22m at 1.67 grams per tonne palladium equivalent (PdEq) or 1.19g/t 3E (palladium+platinum+gold) from 33m including 7m at 3.13g/t PdEq (2.01g/t 3E) from 45m; and 17m at 1.43g/t PdEq (1.04g/t 3E) from 35m including 4m at 2.57g/t PdEq (2.01g/t 3E) from 43m.
Drilling also returned 54m at 1.02g/t PdEq (0.7g/t 3E) from 96m including 4m at 2.16g/t PdEq (1.69g/t 3E) from 126m; and 6m at 2.22g/t PdEq (1.69g/t 3E) from 138m.
An interpretation of PGE mineralisation in long-section suggested the mineralisation is contained within zones of varying widths and grades.
These zones tend to plunge moderately to the south-west at approximately 30 degrees and all of them remain open at depth.
Large and underexplored complex
Peako’s flagship Eastman project incorporates a large and underexplored intrusive complex considered prospective for a major PGE resource.
Located within the central zone of the well-endowed Halls Creek Orogen, the intrusion is a layered mafic to ultramafic intrusive complex and is interpreted to extend along strike for approximately 16.5km.
Historical exploration at Eastman focused on an outcropping 6.9km length of the eastern zone of the intrusive complex, with a bias to evaluating narrow and discontinuous chromite lenses within the sequence.
Peako has been testing PGE endowment across the intrusion, with a focus on identifying mineralisation within the ultramafic horizons outside of the chromite lenses.
