Ripon Hills and Braeside West Projects
Multiple Targets Identified for Further Investigation
First Development Resources’ fully licensed Ripon Hills and Braeside West Projects cover a combined area of approximately 150 km². The tenements are situated around 250 km southeast of Port Hedland, positioned along the western edge of Western Australia’s highly prospective Paterson Province. The projects lie on the western and eastern limbs of the Oakover Syncline.
The region is considered prospective for manganese, akin to the nearby Woodie Woodie manganese mine, as well as for base-metal and gold mineralisation associated with deep-seated, north- to northwest-trending fault structures. These structural corridors are interpreted to have acted as conduits for multiple forms of hydrothermal mineralisation — potential supported by recent exploration success reported by ASX-listed Rumble Resources Limited on ground adjacent to the Braeside West tenement.
Recent exploration by Rumble Resources along the eastern limb of the Oakover Syncline has outlined a regional-scale porphyry, epithermal, and VMS mineralised system extending over 60 kilometres in strike and 8 kilometres in width. Within this corridor, Rumble has identified more than 40 priority Cu–Au–Zn–Pb–Ag targets. Comparable prospective rock types are present within the Ripon Hills area, which has seen very limited historical exploration for base metals and gold.
FDR has completed an in-depth desktop study to enhance understanding of the prospectivity across the Ripon Hills and Braeside West projects. This study captured and assessed all relevant geological, geophysical, and geochemical data covering both tenement areas. With this work now completed, FDR is preparing to advance to the next phase of exploration, focusing on the defined target zones.
