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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs

Azure adds WA ingredients

he Mexican flavours remain but Azure Min- “We had some good hits outside those re- expertise.”
T erals Ltd has decided its best to also offer in- sources which need following up. When we Ultimately, Azure took on Andover and three
vestors some homecooked dishes on its menu. drilled in February, we hit copper [6m @ 2.3% Pilbara gold projects in exchange for Creasy in-
Azure has built its reputation over the last within 30m @ 0.68% copper and 1.5m @ creasing his holding in Azure from 3% to 19%
decade as the most active ASX-listed explorer 7.03% within 18m @ 0.96% copper] and have and the creation of a JV between Azure and
in Mexico but with continued travel and opera- since identified new extensions of that zone in the Creasy Group over the four projects.
tional restrictions limiting management’s ability the database.” Andover is set to be the first subject of Az-
to get on the ground, the company has chosen While the situation in Mexico is slowly im- ure’s WA exploration push. Discovered by the
to add West Australian projects to the portfolio. proving, Azure’s decision to diversify its portfo- Creasy Group in 2018, the prospect hosts
“Mexico is still a major focus for the company; lio sparked outside interest in the future of both nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation in
we have two advanced stage assets which still Alacran and the Oposura base metals project. a mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex similar to
have core value to the company so, we are not Rovira admitted the company received ap- deposits on the Fraser Range and the recent
exiting in any way,” Azure managing director proaches about the projects but said the com- Julimar discovery near Perth. Initial RC drilling
Tony Rovira told Paydirt. “But operating there pany was not ready to make any decisions yet. returned hits of 7m @ 2.62% nickel and 0.65%
in the current COVID environment is difficult.” “Since we announced the WA acquisitions, copper, 2m @ 2.1% nickel and 0.44% copper
Mexico has been severely affected by the we have had a few North American companies and 4m @ 1.1% nickel and 0.8% copper.
pandemic. The North American country is cur- approach us about the Mexican projects,” he Rovira said the Creasy Group had carried
rently seventh on the global cases table with said. “Our response has been they remain core out extensive early-stage work to define miner-
563,705 confirmed cases and 60,800 deaths assets and there would have to be a very com- alisation at Andover.
(third behind only the US and Brazil) as of Au- pelling expression of interest for us to consider “It has gone beyond the greenfields stage, it
gust 26. divestment.” is now a question of following up on those holes
Rovira said Azure’s local exploration team While Mexico remains in lockdown, WA’s ex- with EM and drilling,” he said.
had only got back on site in July and was now ploration sector is flourishing and Azure is hop- In August, Azure began a fixed-loop EM sur-
preparing to start a drilling programme at its ing to get in on the action. vey to refine the original EM targets and plans
Alacran silver-gold project in October. In July, the company announced it had to launch a 3,000m diamond programme in
“The team has been back at Alacran since struck agreement with the Creasy Group over a November.
July, before that they were working from home portfolio of nickel and gold assets in the Pilbara. “That work will follow up the two main targets
on the database, identifying drill targets by go- “As it became obvious that operating over- [7m @ 2.6% and 4m @ 2.5%] and step out to
ing through all the geology, mapping, geochem seas would be challenging we decided we increase the extent of the mineralised zone,”
and geophysics and putting the data into 3D needed some WA assets in the portfolio, in Rovira said.
models. It was a good use of time and has cre- particular gold and nickel given their recent At the same time, the company will continue
ated good opportunity,” Rovira said. “In the last performance, to allow us to diversify both the early-stage work on the Turner River gold pro-
two months we have been field checking the geographic and commodity mix and continue ject which sits just 7km from De Grey Mining
targets we identified.” working while we evaluated what was happen- Ltd’s Mallina project where exploration success
Azure will launch a short, targeted drill pro- ing in Mexico,” Rovira said. in 2020 has turned the explorer into a $1 billion
gramme this month to test extensions to exist- “We reached out to Mark Creasy – who has company.
ing deposits at Mesa de Plata (10.46mt @ 81 been a shareholder since listing in 2003 – and “Both licences are under application and we
g/t for 27.4 moz silver) and Loma Bonita (5.4mt very early stages of discussions he identified are hoping to have them granted this year. We
@ 0.9 g/t gold and 28 g/t silver for 150,000oz Andover as suitable given my experience at will test the ground for exactly the same style
gold and 4.8 moz silver). Jubilee and Azure overall nickel exploration of targets as Mallina – intrusive-related gold,
shear-hosted and greenstones belts.”
Once the licences are granted, Azure in-
tends to undertake airborne geophysics and
reconnaissance aircore drilling to chase repeti-
tions of Mallina mineralisation.
The other two gold projects in the portfolio
– Meentheena and Coongan – are in the East
Pilbara.
“Meentheena [80km from Marble Bar] is
ground which has been held by the Creasy
Group since the mid-90s,” Rovira said. “They
have done a lot of RC and diamond drilling and
identified indications of epithermal-style silver-
gold mineralisation, which is not common in
WA. Azure has good experience from Mexico
in this style of mineralisation.”
At Coongan, near Nullagine, Creasy Group
identified alluvial, conglomerate and bedrock-
hosted gold mineralisation similar to Novo Re-
sources Corp’s nearby Beaton Creek project.
– Dominic Piper

Azure has gained access to a portfolio of nickel and gold assets in the highly
sought-after Pilbara region
aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2020 Page 79