Impact Minerals Finds More Silica Hill Sulphides Before Assays

Drilling Pushes Beyond Existing Resource Model

Impact Minerals Limited (ASX:IPT) has gained geological scale at its Commonwealth-Silica Hill project in New South Wales, where partner Kuniko Limited (ASX:KNI) is funding drilling that has extended the interpreted sulphide system beyond the current resource model.

Phase 2 drilling has now covered 1,324 metres across five holes, with four completed and one still underway. The first holes have outlined roughly 100 metres of vertical geological continuity around the mineralisation intersected in the previous campaign, while the system remains open up-dip, down-dip and laterally.

That is the encouraging part. The qualification is just as important: the continuity refers to observed alteration and sulphide-bearing zones, not yet to continuous gold or silver grades. Laboratory assays are still pending.

Wide Sulphide Zones Await Laboratory Confirmation

The latest visual observations include an approximately 70-metre downhole zone of disseminated sulphides and sulphide-bearing veining in CMKNI010. CMKNI011 also intersected multiple sulphide veins, including individual veins up to about 50 centimetres thick, as drilling tested the evolving Northern and Southern Lode interpretation at depth.

These observations extend the geological story, but they do not establish economic mineralisation. Downhole lengths are not true widths, and visual sulphide abundance cannot determine gold, silver or base-metal grades, impurities or other characteristics relevant to a mining assessment.

Earlier High Grades Set a Demanding Benchmark

The current campaign follows selected Phase 1 results that included a narrow 0.5-metre intersection grading 27 grams per tonne gold and 20,603 grams per tonne silver at Silica Hill. A broader 50-metre interval in another Silica Hill hole returned 1.0 gram per tonne gold and 59 grams per tonne silver, while earlier drilling at Commonwealth Main Shaft and Commonwealth South also produced gold, silver and base-metal intersections.

Those results provide a reason to take the system seriously, but the narrow, exceptionally high-grade Silica Hill vein should not be extrapolated across the surrounding sulphide zones or the new Phase 2 intersections. The project has already demonstrated variability, including a lower-grade 16-metre intersection at Commonwealth South.

Kuniko Carries Exploration Spending

For Impact, the exploration is being advanced without a corresponding near-term funding burden. Kuniko earned an initial 51% interest after spending A$1.5 million, a milestone reached ahead of schedule as detailed in the company’s accelerated 51% stake coverage, leaving Impact with 49%.

Kuniko can earn another 19% by spending a further A$1.5 million. If it reaches 70%, Impact’s remaining 30% interest is free-carried through to a decision on whether to build a mine. That structure gives Impact continued exposure to any exploration success while it directs its own resources towards its high-purity alumina strategy.

Assays and Resource Update Become the Key Tests

Kuniko expects the Phase 2 assays within four to six weeks. The results are intended to be combined with the Phase 1 data in an updated Mineral Resource Estimate targeted for December 2026.

The next stage therefore hinges on conversion: whether the visually extensive sulphide zones carry meaningful and sufficiently continuous grades, and whether those grades can materially expand the resource. Until the assays arrive, Silica Hill has a larger geological footprint, but not yet a larger confirmed resource.