Pioneer Minerals (ASX:PMM) has this week received approval from the United States Forest Service (USFS) to execute its “very exciting” maiden drilling program at the Springfield tungsten-gold-gallium prospect.
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This approval transitions the property, which lies within the North Pine Project in Idaho, USA, from a historic tungsten producer into an active exploration project. The upcoming campaign is designed to test a potential district-scale mineral system that extends beyond the historical mine workings.
“Securing drilling approval is a significant milestones for Pioneer and represents the culmination of an extensive technical review of the Springfield project,” the explorer’s CEO, Michael Bevan, declared today.
“Over the past year, Springfield has evolved from a historic tungsten mine into what we believe may be a large-scale tungsten, gold and gallium system.
“The identification of a 2.9-kilometre magnetic anomaly, confirmation of the scheelite-pyrrhotite relationship and the strong tungsten, gold, and gallium results generated to date have significantly increased our confidence in scale.”
“The upcoming EM survey represents an exciting opportunity to further refine targets prior to drilling. Conductive zones associated with the magnetic anomaly are considered high-priority targets due to the known relationship between pyrrhotite and tungsten mineralisation,” he added.
“For the first time, Pioneer will be able to directly test this large-scale geophysical system and determine whether the historic Springfield Mine represents only a small part of a much larger critical minerals discovery.”
Recent exploration and independent geophysical interpretations have identified a coherent magnetic anomaly at the project. This feature extends ~2.9 kilometres along strike and measures up to 600 meters in width. Independent consultant Mitre Geophysics interpreted the anomaly as either a metasedimentary roof pendant within the Idaho Batholith or a pyrrhotite-rich sulphide body. Both structures are considered highly prospective for tungsten mineralisation.
Independent petrographic studies by Ore Grade Petrology previously confirmed a strong genetic relationship between primary scheelite (tungsten) and pyrrhotite.
Because pyrrhotite is a strongly magnetic sulphide mineral, it serves as a key geophysical vector for targeting mineralisation beneath cover.
Surface sampling at the prospect has outlined multi-commodity potential across distinct systems. High-grade tungsten rock chip results from the scheelite-bearing skarn include peak values of 2.98% WO3 and 1.07% WO3. An independent gold-bearing vein system has returned results like 7.75 g/t Au.
PMM shares have been 12.5c a pop today.
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