Gold Mountain (ASX: GMN) Secures Option Over Historical Brazil Tungsten Mine

Gold Mountain has secured a 12-month exclusive right to acquire the historical Malhada do Angico tungsten mine in northeast Brazil, extending its position around the Logradouro prospect in the Seridó Tungsten Province.

The company has paid R$1 million for exclusivity over Mining Application 848.365/2011, which covers about 857.53 hectares and shares a boundary with one of Gold Mountain’s existing tenements. A further R$2 million would be payable in two stages if regulatory and transaction conditions are met, taking total potential consideration to R$3 million.

The proposed acquisition remains subject to satisfactory technical, legal and regulatory due diligence, as well as Brazilian regulatory processes. The mining application is awaiting a decision from the Brazilian National Mining Agency on a final exploration report lodged in 2016, meaning Gold Mountain has secured an acquisition right rather than completed the purchase.

Sampling supports drill target

Gold Mountain has received five rock-chip results from its adjacent tenement, including three samples containing more than 10,000 parts per million tungsten — the laboratory’s upper analytical limit. That is equivalent to more than 1.26% tungsten trioxide.

Those three samples were collected mainly 300 to 600 metres along strike from Malhada do Angico. A fourth skarn sample returned 1,020 parts per million tungsten, while a fifth sample taken about two kilometres west returned 103 parts per million.

The results indicate tungsten mineralisation but do not establish an average grade. They came from selected grab samples taken at historical workings, and Gold Mountain explicitly cautioned that they are not representative of the grades that may be present. Samples collected inside the acquisition area are still being analysed.

Malhada do Angico produced tungsten during World War II from exposed scheelite-bearing skarn. Mapping by Gold Mountain has identified about 2,000 metres of skarn through the main workings area and a further approximately 2,000 metres of skarn and minor workings in the eastern part of the tenement.

Drilling depends on permits

Gold Mountain has designed a diamond drilling program to test roughly 2,000 metres of strike around the historical pits, with holes planned to reach depths of up to about 120 metres below surface. Environmental permits and other approvals are still being progressed, and drilling will begin only after they are received.

Auger drilling of the historical tailings is already underway. That work is intended to assess grade and thickness and provide material for metallurgical testing, but no auger results have yet been reported.

The project is about 10 kilometres from Parelhas and approximately 47 kilometres south of the operating Brejuí tungsten mine. Gold Mountain said both areas occur within the same broad structural and stratigraphic setting.

Near-term evidence will come from pending assays, tailings analysis and the proposed diamond program. These results will determine whether the historical workings and mapped skarn can support a more advanced exploration case before Gold Mountain commits to completing the acquisition.