Commodities, Exploration/Development, News

This critical minerals discovery may be larger than expected  

iltani resources

Iltani Resources is exploring its Orient silver-indium project in Queensland, with a blind drill test returning favourable results.

The explorer recently tested a blind target with no historic workings or previous drilling, which was located 650m southwest of known mineralisation.

To the company’s pleasant surprise, the drill hole ORR025 intersected multiple silver-lead-zinc-indium veins.

Highlights include:

  • A 2m intercept at 145.3 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent from a depth of 163m
  • 2m at 143.1 g/t silver equivalent from 219m
  • 1m at 64.2 g/t silver equivalent from 186m.

ORR025 was the first hole completed in Iltani’s 11 reverse circulation drill hole program at Orient West. This program is now complete for a total of 2,446m drilled. Assay results are pending and are expected this month.

Indium is considered a critical mineral in Australia. It is often used to make indium tin oxide, an important component of touchscreens and solar panels.

“This result demonstrates firstly, the Orient system has the potential to be much larger than we first thought  and secondly, that geophysical exploration, in particular the  combination of induced polarisation and magnetics, can help us target mineralisation under cover,” Iltani managing director Donald Garner said.

Iltani is on track to deliver an initial JORC resource estimate for Orient in the coming months.

The explorer has already demonstrated the initial prospectivity of Orient, with recent RC drilling returning the following results:

  • 1m at 141g/t silver, 1.7 per cent lead, 18.8 per cent zinc, 0.8 per cent tin, and 1070g/t indium from 117m
  • 1m at 83g/t silver, 1.1 per cent lead, 13 per cent zinc, 0.1 per cent tin, and 870g/t indium from 186m.

These results included what Iltani believes to be Australia’s highest grade indium drilling results of 1070g/t and 870g/t indium.

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