Aeris Resources Limited today provided an update on 70% owned Torrens Exploration Project with encouraging geology intersecting hematite alteration zones. This comes after the company decided to lift the 11-year halt on Lake Torrens, restarting the drilling activities at the site.
In today?s announcement to Australian Securities Exchange, Aeris Resources Limited (ASX: AIS) told that the first drillhole from the Phase 1 drill program at Lake Torrens has been completed. This drillhole, TD7, aimed a coincident gravity, and magnetic anomaly explained in the FALCON geophysical survey in early 2018.
The Joint Venture Torrens Project is 70% held by the Aeris Resources and the remaining 30% by a wholly owned subsidiary of Argonaut Resources NL. It is located within the Stuart Shelf region of South Australia, 50 kilometres from Oz Minerals? Carrapateena prospect and 75 kilometres from Olympic Dam mine of BHP Group.
Lake Torrens known for its extensive footprints of large magnetic and gravity anomaly witnessed drilling of the first hole, TD7, to a total depth of 858.6 meters. TD7 is located approximately 1.5Km from the shoreline of Lake Torrens where a broad zone of skarn-like alteration containing magnetite ? K feldspar ? quartz ? chlorite was identified in the preliminary geology work. The company told that the alteration assemblage was expected and is consistent with similar magnetite dominant alteration intersected within previous drillholes on Lake Torrens.
Aeris Executive Chairman, Andre Labuschagne said that the drilling process had gone very well to date. He stated: ?While it is early days and logging and assays are still pending, Aeris is very encouraged with what it has seen from this first hole. It is also pleasing that the Group has safely completed this first hole using the unique drill rig configuration.?
This drill target has reportedly confirmed the presence of hematite which is recognized as an accessory mineral associated with IOCG mineralisation within the Gawler Craton. However, the assay results of the drill core form TD7 are expected to be released by the end of April 2019.
Aeris told that TD7, while prospective for IOCG mineralisation, is not the highest priority target and was chosen for the first drillhole, in part, given its proximity to the shoreline, i.e., 1.5km from the shoreline of Lake Torrens.
The Group has already started drilling of the second drillhole, TD8, targeting a deep gravity anomaly further out under Lake Torrens. It was said to be the first drillhole that will be drilled beyond 4km from the Lake Torrens shoreline. But within four days of its drilling, the drillhole intersected an unexpected aquifer at approximately 100m downhole, which resulted in artesian water flow, told Aeris. Drilling activities were reportedly suspended once the aquifer was intersected and remediation actions enacted to stop the flow of water reporting to the surface. Aeris eventually decided to discontinue the drilling activities at TD8, then.
Going forward, the company targets the next drillhole, TD9, which is reportedly in close proximity to TD8 as the targeted deep gravity anomaly is yet to be tested. The Group believes that the unique drill set-up and infrastructure requirements to allow drilling to occur on the salt crust surface of Lake Torrens have been exceptionally well, leading to successful completion of the first drillhole.
In today?s trading session, Aeris stock price plunged by 8.33% to stand at $0.165 on 7 March 2019 (12:51 PM AEST). AIS is currently trading at a Price to Earnings multiple of 0.550 x with a market capitalisation of $82.03 million.
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