The Perth-based junior was one of the many to flock to the Fraser Range after the discovery of Nova, but had little success and didn’t have the firepower required to explore its ground properly.
It had essentially been in hibernation last year until appointing two-time AMEC Prospector of the Year Brett Keillor as a technical director in November.
Keillor kicked off a project search to find a new flagship project for Rumble, and in March, the company announced the acquisition of a 70% stake in the Braeside project near Marble Bar, a historical zinc, lead and silver producer.
Historical grab samples returned grades of up to 18.9% zinc, 79% lead, 11.64% copper, 325 grams per tonne silver and 13gpt gold.
There are numerous untested targets along a 30km strike, and Rumble’s early work has doubled the strike potential to 60km.
“Modern” exploration has been limited to six drillholes – three in 1928 and three in 1951.
Given the project’s proximity to the Telfer gold mine, the project had been considered as more of a gold opportunity in recent years.
But what really excites Rumble and Keillor about Braemore is the untapped potential for volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits.
“The VMS potential is there,” Rumble managing director Shane Sikora told MNN.
A regional airborne electromagnetic survey was carried out over some of the project in 2014-15 by the Western Australian government to define potential future water sources.
While the line spacing was 2km, the survey showed up a number of linear conductive trends throughout the project.
The company is planning a VTEM survey on 400m spacing to better define conductive trends.
Keillor completed lithogeochemistry on the footwall and hanging wall-rock zones to the main reef at the Ragged Hills historical mine, which found that the mineralised structure likely represents a deep feeder fracture with underlying sub-volcanic porphyritic rhyolite.
The work found that there was potential for VMS and porphyry related breccia pipe base metals deposits and if higher levels are discovered, the potential for VMS deposits.
“I don’t think there are too many projects out there that fit this model,” Sikora said.
The company has outlined a low-cost five-stage systematic exploration project over the remainder of the year.
Stage one comprising regional soil geochemistry is already underway, with airborne VTEM to begin shortly.
Once the results of the VTEM survey come back, Rumble will conduct infill geochemistry over the conductors to rank targets.
Stage four will comprise ground TEM surveys over the conductors.
Sikora said the first four stages would be completed in 3-4 months and cost A$500,000-600,000.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said.
Stage five will be drilling – the first over the ground in nearly 70 years.
Sikora said Braeside was unique in that it hadn’t been explored using modern techniques.
The company is yet to heavily promote the story but believes the market will cotton on to the potential.
Shares in Rumble are up by 76% since the acquisition was announced, and have almost trebled since Keillor came onboard.
At yesterday’s closing price of 3.7c, Rumble was capitalised at just $8.4 million. Results from stage one exploration are due later this month.
