WESTERN Australia-based mining company Eclipse Metals Ltd is ready to begin a second stage of diamond drilling at its high-grade manganese project in the Mary Valley as soon as next month.

READ MORE

• Mary Valley looks to new mining start
• Mining company denies clearing rainforest near Amamoor
• Residents want more info as metal hunt on at Langshaw
• Major mining prospect for Mary Valley

In a company announcement published this week Eclipse announced it had secured all approvals to begin work in Amamoor, and have “engaged personnel to supervise the program”.

The company has also locked in a preferred contractor ready to begin work at the project some time next month.

Eclipse executive chairman Carl Popal said earlier this week that technical evaluations of two limited areas of the Mary Valley project area “indicated near surface the potential for sizeable loads oh high-grade manganese mineralisation”.

“First stage shallow drilling produced high grade results including 3.2m @59.8% MnO from a depth of 8.8m in steeply dipping high grade lenses,” Mr Popal said.

“The second stage drilling program is targeted to delineate extensions of these lenses and to test other mineralised outcrop areas with an aim of developing the potential for a high-grade manganese resource.

“Overall the results to date have increased the potential for manganese production from Mary Valley.”

The drilling operation will reportedly be overseen by Eclipse’s technical director Rodney Dale, and will comprise 13 diamond holes for 500 metres of drilling.

Business News reported ongoing Eclipse investigations showed Amamoor had “similar characteristics to the world-class manganese deposits at Woodie-Woodie in Western Australia and the extensive deposits in Cuba”.

You can view Eclipse’s announcement in full on its website here.