Queensland-focused exploration and project development company Ark Mines Ltd has commenced exploration activity at its Gunnawarra Nickel-Cobalt Project in North Queensland.
Ultramag Geophysics is now onsite undertaking a detailed drone magnetic survey across the Gunnawarra project’s 36-square-kilometre tenure.
About 40 kilometres south of Mount Garnet, the Gunnawarra project has access to existing infrastructure, including grid power, water, and port facilities.
The project surrounds the Bell Creek resource, a component of the Sconi cobalt project owned by Australian Mines Ltd.
Gunnawarra has strong coincidental geophysics to Bell Creek, with outcrops that pervade the tenement from the Bull Creek resource.
Ultramag Geophysics will undertake a high spatial resolution drone magnetic survey at Gunnawarra utilising unmanned aerial vehicles, which provide an advantage over traditional methods with the ability to consistently fly over hard to reach and hazardous areas as well as safely at low elevations.
This eliminates the need for large crews, refuelling stations, and other potential risks associated with aircraft.
Ark executive director Ben Emery said the data from the 850 line-kilometre high-resolution aeromagnetic survey will enable the company to better understand the nickel-cobalt surface footprint, and the symmetries under surface at Gunnawarra.
Emery added: “We have utilised the newest and most innovative technology which allows us to not only get better and high-resolution results, but it also allows us to do so much quicker and more cost-effectively.”
Dronemag surveys provide comparable resolution to groundmag but with a much faster acquisition, while additional new small features can be mapped and used to inform the geological modelling, as well as being approximately 10 times faster and can be undertaken at a fraction of the cost.
Ultramag’s survey work is expected to take about a week to complete with a detailed report available later in February.
The results will allow Ark to identify geological structures across the tenement including dykes, sills, and other intrusions, faults, magmatic flows and paleochannels.
Being able to pinpoint the magnetic ultramafic host rock will be key to allowing the company to refine drill targets more efficiently.
Various drill targets have previously been defined at Gunnawarra and the results of the survey will confirm these drill locations and likely define others.
A detailed drill program will be developed following the reception and interpretation of the survey results.