41% MANGANESE OXIDE ROCK CHIP AT CARRARA RANGE MANGANESE PROJECT
HIGHLIGHTS
• Multiple high-grade Manganese rock chips up to 41% MnO have been identified at the 100% RML owned Carrara Range Project in the Northern Territory.
• Significantly, 1/3rd of the rock chips collected returned assays > 10% MnO.
• The recent helicopter-supported reconnaissance field programme has enabled a highly effective and low-cost first-pass assessment of the manganese potential of the Plain Creek Formation.
• 7km strike extent of prospective Plain Creek Formation on fully granted tenure verified with recently completed rock chip programme, with large scale extensions/repeats to be tested.
• An infill work programme is planned in Q4, 2023, to further define the extent of manganese mineralisation to assist with planning of a potential drill programme in 2024.
“We are thrilled to have identified high grade manganese at surface on our 100% owned Carrara Range project. Our team’s strength in generative exploration has paved the way for this discovery, on a project which complements our new energy metals portfolio of copper, nickel, silica sand and uranium projects.”
- Chris McFadden, Managing Director, Resolution Minerals
WATCH: Exploration Manager, Christine Lawley, recorded this short Exploration Update while collecting rock chips at the Carrara Range Manganese Project.
DETAILS
Resolution Minerals (ASX: RML) is pleased to announce that the Company has identified multiple high-grade manganese oxide (MnO) rock chips up to 41% MnO at the Carrara Range Project in the Northern Territory. A helicopter-supported reconnaissance program was designed to assess the manganese potential of the Plain Creek Formation in the hanging wall of the Wild Cow Fault system.
The Carrara Range Project is prospective for sediment-hosted base metals, manganese and iron ore. It is situated on the southern portion of the underexplored South Nicholson Basin within the McNamara Group (host sequence to the Century Mine). RML’s attention was drawn to this area after a high-grade manganese occurrence was identified by Geoscience Australia within the Carrara Range.
Geoscience Australia, under the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) initiative (2016–2020), in collaboration with State and Territory Geological Surveys, identified a rock chip from the Plain Creek Formation (McNamara Group) immediately north of RML’s granted project area returning 49.8% MnO (Carson et al., 2020). Based on satellite imagery, the MnO occurrence is associated with a twenty-metre-wide, laterally extensive outcrop (hundreds of metres long) with an unknown depth extent (Carson et. al., 2020). Numerous 1‒5mm wide zoned ‘feeder’ veinlets are evident in the host rock immediately surrounding the occurrence which is interpreted to be an epigenetic replacement stratiform body (Carson et. al., 2020). The MnO occurrence is spatially associated with the Wild Cow Fault, positioned within the fault system's hanging wall (Carson et al., 2020).
NEXT STEPS
An infill work program is planned to further define the manganese occurrences in October-November. A detailed surface geochemical sampling and a micro gravity survey will be completed aiming to define the likely extent of massive manganese at depth and along strike undercover. Mineralogy studies will be completed over the wet season (Jan-March) with potential drill testing in the dry season 2024.
MANGANESE & BATTERY METALS
Manganese is used as a stabilising component in the cathode of batteries. It is a key ingredient in almost half of all rechargeable batteries, including those used in electric vehicles (EV’s) and energy storage systems.
Whilst cobalt and lithium are among the metals more commonly associated with EV’s, manganese is emerging as an increasingly vital material. According to BloombergNEF, global demand for manganese from the battery sector is expected to increase ninefold by 2030.
