Lightning Minerals says reconnaissance sampling has expanded the Warby Project’s interpreted tungsten system well beyond its World War I-era workings, with rock chips grading up to 5.5% tungsten. The company has fast-tracked further soil sampling to define the anomalies before selecting maiden drill targets.
- Rock chips return up to 5.5% tungsten, with five of six samples above 1%
- Soil anomalies remain open to the north-east, south-west, north and west
- Panned concentrates identify tungsten-tin dispersion across roughly 3 to 4 square kilometres
- Gold, tin and copper associations add a polymetallic dimension
- Phase 3 soil program is under way to guide maiden drilling
Warby footprint expands beyond historic workings
Lightning Minerals Limited (ASX:L1M) has found evidence that the Warby Tungsten Project in North Queensland is considerably larger than its shallow historical workings suggest. The company’s integrated Phase 1 and Phase 2 results cover 91 soil samples, 17 panned concentrates, 20 rock chips and 21 reference samples, and point to a broader quartz-wolframite and scheelite vein swarm with no boundaries yet defined.
The strongest surface results came from six additional Phase 2 rock chips collected around historical waste dumps, recently identified workings and previously unsampled areas. Five returned more than 1% tungsten, including a peak assay of 5.46% W, reported by the company as 5.5%. Lightning cautions that these are selective samples from shallow workings and dump material, so they do not establish average grades, continuity or true vein widths.
Soil and drainage results point to a regional system
The reconnaissance soil program detected contiguous tungsten anomalism on several lines, including zones above 50 parts per million extending for about 200 metres and 125 metres. Other lines produced values of 72 ppm, 55 ppm and 41 ppm W, which the company interprets as possible responses from concealed veins beneath Warby’s generally poor outcrop. The anomalies remain open in multiple directions.
Drainage sampling widened the scale of the target again. The 17 panned concentrates, collected across about 4.3 square kilometres, returned peak values of 44,800 parts per million tungsten and 41,700 ppm tin. The results indicate tungsten-tin dispersion across roughly 3 to 4 square kilometres along a 13-kilometre Angore Granite contact, although much of that prospective ground remains untested.
Gold and tin add optionality, not yet a resource
Warby is no longer presenting as a tungsten-only target. One rock chip returned 2.22 parts per million gold, 0.21% tin and 1.31% tungsten, while the sampling also identified copper-related alteration including malachite after chalcopyrite. Lightning says the system contains wolframite and scheelite in veins, with scheelite observed in wall rock under ultraviolet fluorescence.
That combination is geologically encouraging, but the project remains firmly at the reconnaissance stage. There has been no drilling, no estimate of mineral resources and no demonstration that the high-grade surface samples persist at depth or across mineable widths. The company’s own JORC commentary says the present spacing is suitable for anomaly definition, not for establishing grade or geological continuity.
Phase 3 moves Warby towards maiden drilling
Lightning has immediately started Phase 3 soil sampling to extend and infill the grid, close in on the open anomalies and refine drill targets. Depending on the results, the company may add drainage sampling along the broader Lyndbrook Complex, acquire LiDAR to locate concealed workings and structural features, and prioritise areas for trenching and drilling.
The next meaningful test will be whether systematic sampling can convert an impressive collection of surface indications into coherent targets. Until drilling establishes thickness, depth and continuity, Warby’s 5.5% headline assay is evidence of high-grade mineralisation at selected locations, not evidence of an economic deposit.
Bottom Line?
Phase 3 sampling is the bridge between Warby’s striking surface grades and a drill-ready exploration case; the key question is whether the anomalies hold together in situ.
Questions in the middle?
- Will Phase 3 sampling define continuous, drill-ready tungsten corridors rather than isolated anomalies?
- Can drilling confirm meaningful widths and continuity beneath the shallow historical workings?
- Will the gold, tin and copper associations prove material alongside the tungsten system?