TANTALUM
AUSTRALIA NL
24 February 2006
The Announcements Office
Australian Stock Exchange Ltd
Level 3, 20 Bridge Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
By ASX Online Transmission
Dear Sir,
Please find attached ASX/Media release regarding Erayinia JV – Drilling Update, Massive Sulphides Intersected.
Yours faithfully
Timothy King
Company Secretary 13 Mumford Place, Balcatta, WA, 6021 ph: +61 8 6241 1888 fax: +61 8 6241 1811
Website: www.tantalumaustralia.com Email: [email protected]
ACN 009 127 020 ABN 58 009 127 020
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TANTALUM
AUSTRALIA NL
24 February 2006 ASX Code: TAA
ASX ANNOUNCEMENT/MEDIA RELEASE
DRILLING PROGRAM AT E1 BASE METAL DISCOVERY INTERSECTS MASSIVE SULPHIDES IN FIRST TWO HOLES AT ERAYINIA PROJECT - (TAA EARNING 80%)
Tantalum Australia NL (TAA) is pleased to announce that the first two RC drill holes completed of the current program have intersected massive sulphides on two sections down dip of previous drilling. The Erayinia project is a JV with Great Gold Mines.
ERC 24 (6538738N, 484580E) was drilled to intersect the projected VMS horizon about 50 metres down dip of the intersection in ERC 21 located on the most northern section drilled to date. A ten metre wide down hole zone of bedded and massive sulphides was intersected between 105 and 114 metres. Within this zone massive sulphides (>80%) including pyrrhotite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena were intersected from 109 to110 metres and from 112 to 113 metres. ERC 24 was inclined 60 degrees toward grid east and ended at 116 metres in footwall mafic/intermediate volcanics. Intercept widths are approximately 90% of true width.
ERC 25 (6538644N, 484580E) was drilled to intersect the projected VMS horizon about 50 metres down dip of the intersection in ERC 14 (see attached section – ERC 24 was drilled in same position as proposed diamond drill hole) located on a section 100 metres south of ERC 21. An eleven metre wide down hole zone of bedded and massive sulphides was intersected between 173 and 183 metres. Within this zone massive sulphides (>80%) including pyrrhotite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena were intersected from 177 to183 metres. ERC 25 was inclined 75 degrees toward grid east and ended at 189 metres in footwall mafic/intermediate volcanics. Intercept widths are approximately 70% of true width.
Samples from ERC 24 and 25 have been dispatched to the laboratory for assay and are expected to be completed in about ten days. RC drilling is continuing targeted at infill and testing the extensions along strike to the north and south. The current program is expected to be completed early next week.
The Erayinia project area is located approximately 130 km south east of Kalgoorlie and covers an area of 275km2 within the poorly outcropping Erayinia greenstone belt at the extreme south east of the Yilgarn Block – adjacent to the Albany-Fraser tectonic zone. TAA is targeting Archaean volcanic-hosted massive base metal sulphide (VMS) deposits. The RC drill program is expected to be completed by the early next week.
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BACKGROUND
The following is the summary of previous exploration as announced 7 April 2005 and 29 September 2005.
Previous exploration work completed in the early 1990s included soil/bedrock geochemistry, air/ground magnetic surveys, ground EM and limited RC drilling. The magnetometry identified a 35 kilometres long and 0.5 to 1.0 kilometres wide north striking sequence of metamorphosed sediments, mafic and felsic volcanic rocks thought to be prospective for VMS.
Soil and bedrock geochemistry defined a 2200 metres long and 200 metres wide zinc and copper RAB geochemical anomaly hosted by felsic volcanics thought to represent a footwall alteration zone. The zinc anomaly has a peak value of 3600ppm (0.36%) and the parallel copper anomaly to the east has a peak value of 2950ppm (0.29%). In addition a banded chert unit located to the west of the anomaly returned zinc and lead values up to 0.49% and 0.34% respectively.
Ground EM over an area of I.0 by 0.8 kilometres outlined a significant transient electromagnetic (TEM) anomaly (E1 – refer Plan 2 attached) between 100 and 150 metres depth caused by an excellent conductor with a strike length of 200 metres. To the south and continuous with this conductor there is evidence of a less conductive and perhaps deeper section that extends the strike length of the TEM anomaly to 400m. E1 is interpreted to be situated stratigraphically above the footwall alteration and below the anomalous chert unit.
Six magnetic anomalies over 5 kilometres of strike north of E1 remain to be tested by EM and drilling with further magnetometry required to provide data along strike to the north and south (refer Plan2).
Subsequent limited RC drilling testing (4 holes) by a previous explorer only partially tested the up dip extension above the E1 target in unweathered rocks (40 metres vertical depth – refer attached cross section) and returned massive sulphides (50 to 80%) in ERC 8 including sphalerite and pyrrhotite with very encouraging zinc results including:
4 metres of 1.34 % Zn, 0.16% Pb and 26 ppm Ag
1 metre of 2.65% Zn, 0.20% Pb and 48 ppm Ag
4 metres of 0.54%Zn,
Follow up RC drilling by TAA in September 2005 resulted in four drill holes at the northern end of the E1 target intersecting massive sulphides along 200 metres of strike (open to the north and south) with best intercepts:
ERC 14 7 metres of 4.38 % Zn, 0.28% Pb and 31 ppm Ag
Incl. 1 metre of 8.40% Zn, 0.86% Pb, 93 g/t Ag and 0.16 g/t Au
ERC 17 3 metres of 2.19 % Zn, 0.27% Pb and 18.7 ppm Ag
ERC 21 4 metres of 1.75 % Zn, 0.12% Pb and 18.8 ppm Ag
ERC 23 1 metre of 1.24% Cu,1.11% Zn, 0.13%Pb, 29 g/t Ag and 1.65 g/t Au
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The sulphides are considered to be of hydrothermal origin and contain traces of lead, copper, indium, tin, antimony and selenium, among other elements, producing a suite similar to other Archaean VMS deposits. There is alteration (sericitic-chloritic) of the country rock adjacent to the sulphidic zone including fine grained lithic fragments (lapilli). These characteristics are indicative of a mineralised VMS hydrothermal system. The RC program was abandoned after the drill rig failed to reach target depth and was unable to drill deeper than 70 metres down hole. The results were not followed up.
There are some geological and geochemical similarities with the Golden Grove (Scuddles-Gossan Hill deposits) in the Murchison District and Teutonic Bore in the Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia. Trace element analysis of the massive sulphides at Erayinia displayed a signature similar to Golden Grove. It is considered that the Erayinia project represents an excellent brown-fields base metal exploration target.
For more information contact:
Imants Kins
Managing Director
Tantalum Australia NL
Tel: 61 8 62411806
Mobile: 0438 359705
This report, so far as it pertains to ore or mineralisation, is based on information compiled by and as reported upon by Mr Michael Fotios, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and has more than five years experience in the field of activity being reported on.
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TAA
tantalum australia nl
