About the Saltwater Gold Project

The Saltwater Gold Project has eight granted Exploration Licences for a total area of 736km2. The Project is located approximately 100 kilometres south-west of the regional mining centre of Newman.

The Project area covers a strike extent of more than 65km of the highly significant Nanjilgardy fault, the same regional structure reported as the primary source of gold mineralisation at Northern Star Resources’ (ASX: NST) Paulsens Gold Mine and the Mt Olympus Gold Mine in the region.

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Figure 1: Aruma’s Saltwater Project area on 1:500,000 geology

The original geological mapping identified only Ashburton Formation (Figure ) but re-interpretation from mapping outcrop and magnetics (Figure 2) suggested that there was Duck Creek Dolomite, Mt McGrath and Cheela Springs Basalt underneath and domed up through the Ashburton Formation.

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Figure 2: Aruma’s Saltwater Project area on TMI magnetics showing faults and anomalies – drill target area outlined in red.

This domal structure forms the Saltwater Ring Structure (Figure 3) and is the same stratigraphy as Mt Olympus to the west.

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Figure 3: Aruma’s Saltwater Project area on geology with the Saltwater Dome shown with Duck Creek Dolomite and Cheela Springs Basalt shown.

The new interpretation is sgown in Figure 7 where an EIS has been applied for to gain a better knowledge of the stratigraphy and structure enabling discovery of major gold deposits. 

Drilling defines new gold camp

Aruma completed its maiden 40 hole 4,518m maiden reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at the Saltwater Gold Project in December 2020, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. 

The drilling program at Saltwater focused on outcropping areas on the western end of the Saltwater Ring Structure, a large 60km2 magnetic ring structure that sits within E52/3818 at Saltwater, as shown in Figure 1.

Drilling was conducted over four short, closer-spaced lines (shown in Figure 2) which targeted the anomalous western area of the Saltwater Ring Structure.

The program also comprised wider-spaced (regional) longer lines, to the east, which targeted the ring structure/splay under cover.  Nine holes totaling 900m, in two lines of drilling, were completed in this area, as shown in Figure 2.

Intersections grading up to 1.26g/t gold have been received from drilling at the historic Saltwater mining area. The nine wider-spaced extension holes have identified a significant supergene blanket in excess of 200 metres wide.

The results are highly encouraging and extend over a strike length of 4 kilometres, and indicate the discovery of a possible new gold camp at Saltwater.

Significant drill intersections, above >0.3g/t, are shown in Table 1. Holes 27-29 are yet to be received, and will be reported when available.

Aruma Managing Director Peter Schwann stated:

“The intersections from our maiden drilling program at the Saltwater Project are highly encouraging, and are the highest to date in the area, and deliver confirmation of our exploration model, and the potential size of the system. The large, 60km2, Saltwater magnetic ring structure will be further tested to define possible resources in the next phase of drilling.”

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Table 1: Significant intersections >0.3g/t from the 40 hole program

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Figure 4: Drill targets from recently completed maiden drill program at the Saltwater project on TMI magnetics, showing the target Duck Creek-Mt McGrath stratigraphy as the shaded anticline. .

Figure 4 shows the rationale behind the recently completed Saltwater drilling, with the western drill lines located over the historic gold area, and the eastern lines positioned over the splay and Nanjilgardy Fault, under cover. The western splay coincides with AVRC24 anomaly, alteration and historic nuggets. The eastern splay targeted areas of deep weathering and paleochannels.

The close-spaced drilling targeted old workings at the historic Saltwater mining area within the recently identified and prospective Mt McGrath Formation, which hosts Mt Olympus Gold Mine.

The wider-spaced drilling targeted the extension of the contact and structure under cover some 3km east.

The stratigraphic intersections are shown in Figure 5 as well as the locations of the eastern area blanket in Figure 6. The supergene blanket seen in the East Lines in Figure 6 is located almost 4km from the Saltwater cluster and highlights the potential for a significant system – with the intersection of 4m at 0.47g/t in hole SRC 32.

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Figure 5: Showing anomalous drill results >0.1g/t – showing cluster on the historic area (red outline) and the projected extension to the East Line (green outline)

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Figure 6: Drilling results at the East Lines area showing the supergene blanket

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Table 2: Drill Holes intersections between 0.3 to 0.1g/t Au

Planned Exploration

Following the defineition of a new structurally controlled gold camp, Aruma plans to use detailed magnetics and conductivity surveys to target zones capable of hosting economic gold deposits. These will be located on splays off the Nanjilgardy Fault, similar to both Paulsens (Hardy Fault) and Mt Olympus (Zoe Fault).

This work will guide both resource drilling and the proposed (up to ) 6 diamond holes applied for under the State Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme with the targets shown below in Figure 7.

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Figure 7: Drilling targets to hit splays in the fertile Mt McGrath formation.

This work will be undertaken in Q4 2020-2021.