Castillo Copper Limited’s (ASX: CCZ) has appointed experienced contracting firm Gnomic Exploration Services to oversee and expedite the inaugural drilling programme at Cangai Copper Mine in New South Wales.
The contract was announced at the same time as Castillo was revealing excellent assay results which showed excellent high grade material of up to 1.7g/t Au. Notably, these results complement earlier assays including 14% Cu (max); 34.7 g/t Ag, 1.2% Zn and 0.22% Pb.
To support the programme, Gnomic has appointed a highly experience Sydney based geologist and field crew to oversee and manage the drilling programme.
Gnomic has been in operation since 1985, specialising in providing highly professional geoscience / geo-technical contractors and consultants to the mineral and energy industries.
Gnomic’s scope of work includes:
- Project management of the drilling programme, including logging, sampling and data collection;
- Liasing with regulators on licensing and approvals; and
- Overseeing clean up and rehabilitation post the drilling program;
The drill programme is planned to be run in three phases.
The initial phase focuses on confirming supergene ore along the unmined working sections.
Drilling will test the along strike and width extensions of the modelled lodes as well as the mineralisation halo between the lodes. This will determine the extent of high-grade copper mineralisation within JORC modelled boundary as well as the lower grade (1-3% Cu) mineralisation along the shear zone and between the high grade lodes as identified in the field.
Phase 2 will focus on infill resource drilling aiming to upgrade a majority of the resource to indicated category. The closing phase of the drilling programme will ulitise deeper core holes to target deeper sulphide anomalies determined by the EM survey.
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AERIAL AND EM SURVEYS
To compliment the drilling program MapStat Aerial Insights has been contracted to complete a detailed drone aerial photography survey over the Cangai area with the aim of producing detailed topographic maps and digital terrain models (DTM). These are required for accurate resource modelling and drill hole collar planning.
In addition, Newexco Services have been tasked with planning a fixed loop electro-magnetic survey (FLEM) and seeking quotations from eastern states geophysical operators. The survey covers the area surrounding the Cangai copper lode structure and is designed to identify sulphide mineralisation below the known lodes as well as looking for offset, parallel or blind mineralisation. EM anomalies generated will form future drill targets during the third phase of the drilling program.
Castillo Copper’s Executive Director Alan Armstrong said that once all regulatory approvals are through, the drilling campaign will commence to determine the extent of copper-gold-silver mineralisation within and external to the JORC modelled boundary.
At this juncture, our geologists are optimistic that there will be a material upward revision to the resource size once it is 3D modelled. The recent assay results support this view, as they unearthed excellent high grade material, with gold being no exception recording up to 1.7g/t Au. Moving forward, Jackaderry North will become a primary cobalt target as, encouragingly, further evidence suggests cobalt mineralisation is more widespread than initial evidence implied.
