Diversified minerals explorer Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) has kicked off drilling the deepest diamond drill hole in Australia in a bid to gain a deeper understanding of the Pilbara geology.
The +3.3km “super-deep” diamond drill hole (ASD-1) – which has a price tag of around A$1.4 million – is designed to test rock sequences in the Pilbara Basin from surface and deep into the basement’s geology.
Artemis will be working with CSIRO on ASD-1 to assist in characterising the drill core obtained from the deep hole through the Pilbara stratigraphy.
They propose to use up-to-date geochemical and geophysical methods to provide stratigraphic and petrophysical constraints on the Neoarchean and Mesoarchean sequences and study important target horizons for Artemis.
This will be one of the first major projects to take advantage of CSIRO’s Drill Core Lab facility in Perth. The proposed research will examine the stratigraphy of the drill core using XRF-based chemistry and include focused studies of ASD-1’s key target horizons.
To assist with the costs of drilling this well, co-funding of $200,000 has been approved by the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS), provided by the West Australian Government, and Artemis have also been advised that $50,000 will also be made available by Australian Federal Government directly to the CSIRO for support under their Innovation Connections Facilitation Scheme, through the Federal Government’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
ASD-1 lies some 43km south of Artemis’ Radio Hill Mine in the West Pilbara, of Western Australia.
Shares in Artemis have gained 0.5c to 19c in morning trade.