Ekometall Group Ltd., through its wholly owned Austrian subsidiary Ekometall Exploration GmbH., have received laboratory results from prospecting survey work at its 100% owned Kelchalpe licence area in Tirol, Austria.
Following reconnaissance mapping of the area, 22 rock samples were analysed by ALS in Romania with a 12-day turnaround using ALS methods Au-AA25 fire assay with AAS finish for gold, ME-ICP61 acid digest with ICP-AES finish for a 33-element suite including base metals, and CU-OG62 acid digest with ICP-AES finish for ore grade copper (>1% Cu).
Copper and Gold
The initial results confirm the presence of copper and gold within the mining waste stockpiles and surrounding exposures of the mine. The highest overall result was from float sample EXR0122 which returned 3.52% Cu & 0.2g/t Au. The average copper grade of all analysed samples was 0.8% and the average gold grade was 0.1g/t and 11/22 samples returned >0.5% Cu
The reported sample grades are higher than those found in the historic literature and were sampled from mining waste, so they loosely support our hypothesis that higher-grade economic zones of Cu-Au exist within the mine which have not yet been exploited or studied fully.
Cobalt
Several samples contained visible secondary cobalt mineralisation with grades of up to 0.15%. As shown in the sample photo below, the primary observed mineral was pink-beige Erythrite, which is often a secondary weathering product of more common cobalt minerals, which we now assume are present surrounding the primary Cu-Au system.
Cobalt mineralisation has never been reported or studied in this area or the regional geological system before and further mapping and field sampling will be conducted to better understand the relationships between Cu, Co & Au in early 2024.
Ekometall Exploration GmbH. Geschäftsführer Severina Ditzov commented:
Cobalt & copper are both essential critical metals in the ‘green transition’ for which Europe does not have a secured supply chain. Identifying more economically viable targets here in Tirol strengthens the case for Austria to become the leading force in Europe’s ‘resource revolution’, supplying environmentally & socially sustainable minerals to the region’s energy, automotive and infrastructure sectors.
Ekometall Group Ltd. CEO Liam Hardy commented:
Our 2023 program was the first systematic regional scale exploration campaign in Austria within living memory and this new set of results from Wildalm demonstrates exactly the kind of opportunity we came here for. In one short recon trip our team found higher grades of copper in waste dumps than were historically reported and added gold & cobalt potential to the project’s rosta.
Source: Ekometal Exploration
