Woodie Woodie North Manganese Project
The Woodie Woodie North (WWN) manganese project is located approximately 70km north-east of ConsMin Woodie Woodie Manganese Mine, 240km east of Port Hedland. Access is via well maintained bituminised road from Marble Bar to the Oakover River thence northwards along cleared station tracks to the project area.
Figure 1 – Woodie Woodie North Manganese Project
The Tenure consists of approximately 586km2 within the prospective East Pilbara Manganese province, consisting of 6 granted and 3 application exploration licences.
Resource
Accelerate announced a maiden inferred Mineral Resources over WWE in December 2023 totalling 1.2Mt at 19.1% Mn (at a 15% Mn cut-off) and Exploration Targets totalling 5.3Mt – 10.7Mt at 10% – 19% Mn for the Woodie Woodie North Manganese Project in Western Australia’s Pilbara Region (Figure 2 and Table 1).
Notes:
- Mineral Resources reported at cut-offs of 15% Mn and 10% Mn (italics).
- Due to the effects of rounding, the total may not represent the sum of all components.
- Mineral Resource Estimate prepared by ERM Group Company (previously CSA Global)
The maiden Mineral Resources combined with Exploration Target estimates confirm the project’s high grade and scale potential and represent a significant step forward for the Woodie Woodie North Project.
Estimation of the Mineral Resources was based on the integration of historical drilling data and the Company’s recent Phase 1 to 4 Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling campaigns completed during 2022 and 2023 at the Barra North Area 1, Barra South Areas 3 and 4, and Area 42 (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Location of Mineral Resources at Barra North Area 1, Barra South Areas 3 and 4, and Area 42.
Figure 3 - Geological cross section of Area 42 showing significant intercepts.
Geology
The regional geology of the project area consists of Archean basement rocks (mafics and sediments) overlain conformably by Carawine Dolomite which is subsequently unconformably overlayed by Proterozoic Pinjian Chert, which forms a surface cap on the dolomite. Chert breccia was formed by tectonic activity and hydrothermal dissolution of the dolomite and subsequent collapse of the chert cap.
After chert formation the land surface was subject to weathering and erosion prior to the deposition of the Mesoproterozoic Manganese Group.
Exploration targeting utilises the Woodie Woodie hydrothermal Manganese model in conjunction with regional mapping and systematic rock sampling.
Figure 4 – Example of Mapped Manganese outcrop form Woodie Woodie North Project
Future Work
Accelerate has identified future supply disruption and metal shortfalls in the Manganese market and has executed a high-grade manganese exploration strategy to supply the battery and steel production markets.
Manganese is a critical element used in steel production. The steel industry is poised to continue growing, providing a steady source of demand for manganese. New demand is arising from clean-energy applications. High purity manganese (HPM) is a cheaper substitute for cobalt in nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery cathodes.
Accelerate Resources is engaged in planning for the 2024 field program which sees as the main elements:
- On-going incremental development of the presently identified resources.
- Starting the scout drilling on the first greenfield sites to rapidly expand the resource base.
- Diamond drilling at selected sites to provide baseline geological, mineralogical, geo-technical and metallurgical information to enable the current inferred resources to be advanced to indicated status.
