Miramar has four exploration projects within the Proterozoic Capricorn Orogen of Western Australia.
The Whaleshark IOCG project is located in the Ashburton region of WA, approximately 40km east of Onslow. The Project is characterised by a large Proterozoic banded iron formation and granite intrusion beneath approximately 100m of Cretaceous sediments of the Northern Carnarvon Basin.
The Project has potential for discovery of a large shallow iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposit such as Ernest Henry, Starra, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill, but with the advantage of much shallower cover.
Since commencing exploration at Whaleshark in mid-2021, Miramar has identified strongly anomalous Cu, Co, Au, Ag and other IOCG pathfinders in shallow aircore drilling beneath surface geochemical anomalism.
Detailed gravity surveys identified a discrete gravity anomaly in the “neck” of the granite that has been crosscut by a NW-trending fault and is coincident with the surface and aircore geochemical anomalism.
The scale, magnitude and suite of elements seen at Whaleshark is very similar to the large Ernest Henry IOCG in Queensland.
In addition, comparison of results from aircore drilling at Whaleshark with published results from research carried out at the Prominent Hill IOCG deposit in South Australia also indicate the potential for the rare earth element (REE) anomalism seen at Whaleshark to be related to buried IOCG mineralisation.
Miramar has received Programme of Work Approval for diamond drilling at Whaleshark and plans to drill test the coincident gravity and geochemical anomaly as soon as heritage surveys have been completed.
Miramar has several granted and pending Exploration Licences which are prospective for Proterozoic Norilsk-style magmatic Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralisation associated with 1070Ma Kulkatharra Dolerite sills, which are the same age as the Giles Complex, host to the large Nebo and Babel Ni-Cu deposits in the West Musgraves.
Since 2020, Miramar has built a strategic land position in the Bangemall region, focussing on areas containing key ingredients and/or regional-scale indicators for Norilsk-style Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralisation.
During the December 2024 Quarter, the Company rationalised its land position by withdrawing several applications that had stalled due to heritage issues, and by surrendering granted tenements (and part of E52/3893) that were deemed less prospective based on exploration work carried out so far.
The Company will now focus on the area surrounding the Mount Vernon and Trouble Bore Projects.
The Chain Pool Project is located approximately 275km northeast of Carnarvon and consists of one Exploration Licence application. The Project straddles the boundary between the Gascoyne Province and the Edmund Basin with the western half of the tenement covering a granitoid intrusion of the Durlacher Supersuite and the eastern half of the tenement covers sediments of the Edmund Basin intruded by 1465Ma dolerite sill an includes the historic Joy Helen Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag occurence.
Both geological sequences are crosscut by later dykes of the 750Ma Mundine Well Suite which is the same unit that hosts the Mangaroon Ni-Cu-PGE occurrence further south.
Miramar has submitted applications for two new Exploration Licences over a large heavy mineral sands +/- rare earth element (REE) placer target in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The target is characterised by a large coastal embayment north of the mouth of the Gascoyne River where a series of parallel historical shorelines are seen. The Gascoyne River drains a very large catchment area covering approximately 71,000 square kilometres and containing several significant bedrock REE discoveries.
The local geological setting of the target is analogous to the Coburn minerals sands project, near Shark Bay, and other heavy mineral sands (+/- REE) deposits along the west coast of Australia. Heavy mineral strandline deposits form along current and historic coastlines as a result of persistent wave action and the resulting separation of denser minerals from beach sands.
Previous workers looking for heavy mineral sands in the area identified REE-bearing heavy minerals, including monazite and xenotime, but no systematic REE-focussed work was completed (ref: WAMEX a029292). Limited historical surface sampling across the embayment identified additional heavy mineral strandlines, with heavy mineral contents above 1% and up to 12%, but no drilling or REE-focussed work was completed (ref: WAMEX a109570 and a115124). Compared with published results from the discovery of the Jacinth-Ambrosia deposits in South Australia, anything over 1% heavy minerals is considered significant.
Once granted, the Company plans to conduct systematic surface sampling and shallow auger and/or aircore drilling to test for accumulations of heavy mineral sands, including REE-bearing heavy minerals.
