Rio Tinto has commenced a maiden drill program at West Wits Mining’s Mt Cecelia project in Western Australia, with the hope of discovering base metal sulphide mineralisation.
The major miner’s subsidiary Rio Tinto Exploration (RTX) will conduct the campaign, which will target electromagnetic (EM) anomalies identified from airborne and ground EM surveys undertaken by West Wits in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Access tracks and drill pads have been cleared for six drill locations at Mt Cecelia’s primary target (SGC_1) located in the far north of the tenement.
West Wits managing director Jac van Heerden said the start of drilling transitioned the highly prospective exploration tenement into an exciting stage of exploration.
“RTX’s regional expertise, workforce and funding enables the company to progress Mt Cecelia’s promising EM results whilst the West Wits team focuses on executing the development strategy at its 4.28-million-ounce gold project in South Africa,” he said.
The Mt Cecelia project lies in a district that supports several world-class projects such as the Woodie Woodie manganese mine, Nifty copper and Telfer gold/copper/silver mines.
West Wits and RTX entered into a farm-in and joint venture agreement in December 2021. As part of this agreement, RTX was required to pay $150,000 cash upfront and, subject to land access, complete at least 800m of diamond core and/or reverse circulation drilling before the end of 2022.
RTX has the right to earn a 51 per cent interest in Mt Cecelia if it spends a minimum of $4 million on exploration in four years.
The company can then elect to solely fund a further $6 million of exploration expenditure within three years to earn an additional 29 per cent interest. RTX would be required to make a further $250,000 cash payment if it chose to sole fund this phase.