Projects in Western Australia
Sentinel Exploration Limited owns projects in geographically diverse domains in Western Australia (Figure 1).
Exploration is at an early stage at all projects, but substantial investigatory investment and field effort has been expended by Sentinel to date.
In July 2024 – Sentinel sells its Iron Duke interests to Venture Minerals for $1.5m (now named Jupiter JV).
All projects demonstrate significant upside for economic mineralisation including battery minerals.
KIRUP PROJECT – Lithium and Gold
Kirup is a large leasehold within a recently proven metalliferous domain.
The Kirup tenements are only 20km from the giant Greenbushes lithium and tantalum mine and are transected by a mineralised shear zone suggested as the mineralising conduit for the Greenbushes accumulation.
The Kirup tenements also have nickel/copper/PGE potential with a magnetic signature analogous to the recently discovered large Julimar deposit north of Perth.
The Donnybrook historic gold mine is adjacent to the Sentinel Leases, indicating an active mineralisation process for gold.
The leases are lightly explored. Sentinel has completed a sale and JV on the southern tenement, to share the exploration risk and advance the project quicker.
CUBBINE HILLS – Gold and Copper
Early-stage exploration by Sentinel at Cubbine Hills has intersected massive sulphides.
Soil sampling has revealed anonymously elevated values of copper and gold along a geological contact.
The tenement is bisected by a mapped shear zone and on trend with a regionally economic greenstone.
All these factors suggest that this tenement has excellent potential to identify significant and possibly economic mineralisation with ongoing exploration.
UPDATE JULY 2024: Sentinel recently completed a 12 hole, 1,058m RC drilling program, drilled by Stark Drilling. The drilling was designed to test a significant gold in soil anomaly discovered by Sentinel in 2022. Sentinel is grateful for the Government Department of Mines (DEMIRS) Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funding in assisting our Cubbine Hills drilling programs. Results from the assays show that we have successfully intersected a relatively flat lying NE dipping at 30deg gold system with arsenic pathfinder associated with better gold grades. It appears that we are only at the start of it given the increasing grades northwards shown in the sections below. Further drilling is planned to hopefully hit the interpreted higher-grade zone to the north and at depth in the next few holes.
MARDA EAST – Gold
Marda East is a relatively small tenement but is adjacent to the 340k ounce Mount Jackson gold mining complex.
The tenement has encouraging gold assays from recent surface samples.
A significant magnetic anomaly in the northwest portion of the lease could suggest the presence of Banded Iron Formation (BIF), the host rock for the nearby mines.
BARLEE
Barlee (Marda North) comprises four tenements in application.
Although the area has been lightly explored, previous operators have identified substantial copper, nickel and gold anomalies in the area and mapped mineralised trends that extend onto Sentinel tenements.
IRON DUKE (REE JV – SOLD IN JULY 2024)
Iron Duke is at an early stage of exploration and satellite mineralogy plus limited soil samples suggest the possible presence of a Carbonatite, with the potential to host Rare Earth Minerals (REE).
The magnetic signature of Iron Duke bears a strong resemblance to the world class Mount Weld deposit.
Recently a JV was completed on this for which drilling is expected to commence soon.
UPDATE JULY 2024: Sentinel are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement to sell Sentinel’s interests in the Jupiter JV (formerly known as Iron Duke) to Venture Minerals Ltd (“Venture Minerals” ASX: VMS) for $1.5m (subject to their shareholder approval in late August – refer ASX announcement 1 July 2024).
This sale coincides with a $6.2M fundraising announced by Venture Minerals on Monday 1 July 2024. Sentinel is expected to hold approximately 3% in Venture Minerals after the raising. Cornerstone investors in the raising included Lion Selection, a specialist and highly regarded mining fund. Venture Minerals will hold 100% of a large, high-grade Rare Earth Elements (“REEs”) discovery once the transaction is closed.
Venture Minerals and Sentinel discovered clay hosted REEs over a 40km2 footprint at Jupiter, located approximately 230km inland of Geraldton in the Mid-West region of Western Australia (refer ASX announcement – Fund Raising Deck).
REE’s have become a commodity sector of huge strategic interest to governments, with a broad suite of applications in magnets and super magnets, motors, metal alloys, electronic and computing equipment, batteries and catalytic converters. Production is dominated by China, and western Governments are providing support to develop non-Chinese sources of production and processing. These initiatives are likely to reduce barriers to entry for new mining projects in a commodity sector which historically has been challenging to establish new sources of production. We are pleased to have been able to monetize this asset which was not one of our core projects and is likely to be upgraded in terms of resource and development by Venture Minerals through their proposed work program.
This transaction provides Sentinel with liquidity to bolster our balance sheet, as well as carefully advance our prospective gold and copper projects, including Cubbine Hills (Gold and Copper), Marda East (Gold) and Kirup (Lithium, Gold, near Greenbushes WA).
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For more details on our activities please contact the Company Secretary via email – cosec@sentinelexploration.com.au