Gold Mountain has signed an exclusive 12-month agreement to acquire mining application 848.365/2011 covering the historical Malhada do Angico tungsten mine in north-east Brazil.
Signed with Emprogeo Mining Business (EMPG), the agreement gives Gold Mountain the right to conduct due diligence on the 857.53-hectare (ha) site, which is adjacent to the company’s existing Logradouro tenements within the Seridó Tungsten Province.
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The Malhada do Angico mine, which was operational during the Second World War under Mineração Fluminense, extracted scheelite-bearing skarn units hosted by the Jucurutu Formation, an area notable for multiple scheelite deposits including the major Brejuí Mine.
The site is located within one of South America’s principal tungsten-producing regions.
Due diligence by Gold Mountain includes technical, legal and regulatory reviews as well as ongoing exploration activity.
Under the agreement, the company is reviewing the mining application, which currently awaits a decision from the Brazilian National Mining Agency regarding the Positive Final Exploration Report.
Exploration work to date includes geological mapping, rock-chip and stream sediment sampling, and drilling of historical tailings.
Results from initial rock-chip sampling within Gold Mountain’s adjacent tenement, along strike from the Malhada do Angico mine, showed three samples with tungsten values surpassing 10,000 parts per million tungsten, equivalent to 1.26% tungsten trioxide.
Additional samples from within the Malhada do Angico mine tenement are still being analysed.
Gold Mountain has also mapped more than 2,000m of skarn in the main mine zone and an additional 2,000m in the eastern part of the tenement.
A diamond drilling programme has been planned to test the continuity and depth of the skarn-hosted tungsten mineralisation, with permitting in progress.
Soil sampling covering tungsten-molybdenum-bismuth anomalies has been completed, with results pending to guide future exploration efforts.
The company has stated that the potential acquisition is subject to the completion of satisfactory due diligence and regulatory processes outlined in the agreement.
EMPG remains the current holder of the mining application.
Gold Mountain executive director David Evans said: “GMN is excited by this tungsten opportunity, which I recently visited. We are fast tracking the exploration programme and will commence drilling as soon as the necessary permits are obtained.
“We have also commenced auger drilling of the historical tailings to confirm the grade and obtain samples for metallurgical test-work.”
