Noricum Gold* (NMG LN) 0.175p, Mkt Cap £4.7m – Channel sample shows meaningful grades of copper, gold and silver in 12m section
- Noricum Gold report progress at their 100% owned Walchem project in Austria. Walchem has a historic non-JORC resource of 423,470t calculated in 1945
- Walchem was a polymetallic mine historically with ore mined from ‘limonitic’ ore zones within the mine.
- The mine is formed from a VMS style deposit indicating potential for the discovery of further high grade VMS style ore zones within the region.
- Volcanic Massive Sulphides are generally formed on the sea floor as seen by their black smokers. The metals and other minerals formed within this process are mixed through time but often still retain high concentration of metals when found on land after millions of years of tectonic movement. Walchem is a case in point.
- Channel sampling of a section of hanging wall within the project shows high grade polymetallic mineralisation. This is tantamount to drilling the relevant section of mineralisation and gives significantly more useful information than rock chip sampling.
- The 12m channel sample shows:
- 0.6% copper
- 0.33 g/t gold
- 7.25g/t silver
The channel sample includes a 2m section of:
- 1.14% copper,
- 1.08g/t gold,
- 30.8g/t sliver
- “Further local rock and chip sampling returned results up to 1.03% Cu, 5.63% lead (‘Pb’), 12.65% zinc (‘Zn’)” though the use of rock chips can give anomalous and erroneous results
- The Noricum team continue to focus their exploration efforts on the underground workings and other outcrops. This is low-cost work but is important as the channel sampling can give good results for very little expense.
- Walchem was last mined in 1942 producing average grades of:
- 1.71% copper
- 3.23% zinc
- 2.48% lead
- 83g/t silver
- 0.5g/t gold
- Total Walchem production between 1680 and 1858 is estimated in 1903 to be
- Copper (metal) 3,585t
- Sulphur 1,149t
- Gold 0.055t
- Silver 1.978t
- Lead 4.200t
- The company are also working in Georgia on their recently acquired Bolnisi exploration licenses in which Noricum hold a 50% stake
- The Bolnisi project contains non-JORC , C1, C2 & P1 Soviet Reserves & Resources of 980,000t copper, 6.6moz gold and 22moz silver.
- Noricum’s press release gives more detail on the history of the Walchem mine and the work being done on the property showing the location of sampling and further results on samples taken
Sp Angel Conclusion: The Noricum team are pressing ahead with their evaluation and exploration of the Walchem mine in Austria. The work is low cost but channel sampling within the mine should give good indication towards the potential of the mine going forward. Combining this information with drill sections in time should enable the calculation of a greater ore resource to indicate the value of the project and its potential for mining going forward. This early work looks encouraging and feels like a good start to the work program.
*SP Angel acts as Nomad and Broker to Noricum. An SP Angel analyst has visited the Schonberg site in Austria.
