Cobalt play Meteoric Resources releases positive report

Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI) has released an operational update for the three months to 31 March.

In the quarter, MEI confirmed high-grade cobalt mineralisation at Mulligan with rock chip samples grading up to 9.71% cobalt and 16.5 g/t gold, and picked up two new primary cobalt projects in Canada — the Gillies Limit Project and the Burt Cobalt Project, as shown below:

In addition, assay results from its Midrim maiden drilling campaign intersected significant high‐grade shallow mineralised intersects including the following highlights:

• 22.1m @ 2.38% copper; 1.64% nickel & 2.56 g/t ‘platinum group elements’ MR‐17‐01 from 28m
  
• 9.4m @ 4.25% copper; 3.52% nickel & 4.59 g/t ‘platinum group elements’ MR‐17‐01 from 56m
  
• 16.8m @ 1.79% copper; 1.01% nickel & 2.95 g/t ‘platinum group elements’ MR‐17‐05 from 23m
  
• 7.7m @ 0.66% copper; 0.42% nickel & 0.81 g/t ‘platinum group elements’ MR‐17‐06 from 104m
  

The quarter also saw MEI appoint Andrew Tunks as Managing Director and Tony Cormack as Cobalt Project Manager. Further, the report includes the company’s cobalt exploration plans for the coming quarter, with drilling scheduled to commence in mid-2018.

It should be noted that MEI is still in its early stages and investors should seek professional financial advice if considering this stock for their portfolio.

MEI expands cobalt portfolio

During the quarter MEI entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the Gillies Limit project which consists of 11 contiguous claim blocks within the prolific Cobalt Camp mining district. The project is located on the same geological trend, and within just 2.5 kilometres of, numerous historical high‐grade cobalt and silver mines including the Cobalt A‐53 mine, the Silver mining company mine, the Provincial mine and the Waldina silver mines shaft.

Promisingly, recent exploration activities on the claims revealed visible cobalt minerals exposed throughout the property. MEI will first resample the extensive historic workings with the aim of defining primary cobalt mineralisation, and then plans to fast-track its rigorous exploration approach with an extensive program of prospect scale mapping, surface sampling, geophysics along with resampling of the numerous outcrops and open pit operations.

The below map shows the location of Gillies Limit in relation to Cobalt Town:

The consideration for the acquisition was an initial payment of C$50,000 and C$50,000 in MEI Shares, and three additional payments, on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd anniversaries of completion, of C$30,000 and C$30,000 in MEI Shares. In addition, the agreement stipulates introduction fees of C$5,000 and 1,000,000 MEI Shares.

In the quarter, the company also staked highly prospective primary cobalt ground in Ontario with the Burt Cobalt Project. The project is located 7km directly along strike from Battery Minerals Resources’ Island 27 project, and hosts three major north-south trending faults identified as being the key hosts of primary cobalt mineralisation throughout the district.

These cobalt fertile structures will be the focus for MEI’s exploration program of mapping, geochemistry, geophysics and drilling planned for Q2CY18.

Mulligan and Midrim projects

Rock samples taken by MEI during the quarter confirmed high‐grade cobalt grades at the Mulligan project, with one sample returning a result of 9.71% cobalt, 14.3 g/t gold and 0.3% nickel.

This supports the prospectivity of the Mulligan area, which has been highlighted in several high-grade historical samples which returned results such as 12.6% cobalt, 1.03% nickel, 29.8 g/t gold, 39.7 g/t silver, 19% cobalt and 56.7 g/t gold.

According to a 1952 report on Mulligan, eight tonnes of cobalt ore was shipped from the Mulligan site for mineral extraction, with an impressive recovery rate of 10% cobalt.

MEI also undertook a maiden drilling program at its Midrim project during the March quarter, returning outstanding shallow high‐grade copper and nickel results.

The drilling program was conducted over November‐December 2017 where a total of 15 holes were completed across the project for 2,270 metres of NQ diamond core. A total of 512 core samples were submitted to ALS in Sudbury for analysis, with the following results:

Upcoming exploration activities for MEI

The next phase of the MEI’s strategy, according to its quarterly report, is to fast‐track a comprehensive exploration program across all its primary cobalt projects.

The work program will include prospect scale mapping, geochemical surveys, airborne and ground based geophysical surveys along with diamond core drilling scheduled at the high priority Mulligan and Iron Mask projects.

With its recent acquisitions, MEI now holds five highly prospective cobalt projects in Ontario and is fully funded to conduct its comprehensive exploration plans, which are as follows: