Emmerson Resources Ltd (ASX: ERM) has been awarded drilling co-funding grants from the NSW Government for new programmes at the promising Kiola and Kadungle projects.
The New Frontiers Cooperative Drilling grants programme by the NSW Government encourages private exploration drilling in the search of high value mineral deposits in prospective underexplored areas of NSW and where companies are using the latest technology to identify new deposits.
The $2 million programme is a co-funded initiative where the NSW Government provides up to 50 per cent of direct drilling costs for individual projects, capped at $200,000.
Emmerson is well placed to emerge in a very strong position once this COVID-19 crisis allows field activities to recommence,” Emmerson Managing Director, Rob Bills, said.
“We have exceptional ground positions in one of the Australia’s highest-grade gold provinces at Tennant Creek plus a suite of early mover assets in some of the hottest exploration districts in NSW.
“The announcement by the NSW Government that Emmerson has secured two Cooperative Drilling Grants has not only reduced our exploration costs across both our Kiola and Kadungle projects but is also testament to the potential of these projects to generate new copper-gold discoveries.
“Additionally, we have prudently implemented cost saving measures across our business to help weather the challenging economic conditions we currently face.”
Emmerson’s Kiola project is a highly ranked, early stage gold-copper project centred on the 15 sq. km Kiola Geochemical Zone (KGZ) within the highly prospective Molong Belt.
Aeromagnetic survey data suggests potential for multiple Ordovician intrusions within the subsurface and given the anomalous gold, copper and base metals, likely represent the source of these metals.
“Most of the targets in our forthcoming drill programme occur within 400m of the surface and will be the deepest drill holes in the history of the project,” Mr Bills said.
Some 15-line km of Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysics collected in late 2019 has reinforced the depth potential of the target areas, particularly when combined with the geochemistry, age dates, intrusion fertility plots and geology.
The proposed drill programme consists of a minimum of 2,000m of diamond drilling across five holes – with an ability to extend the holes based on visual results. The NSW drilling grant will now reduce the direct drilling costs by 50% or $83,000.
The Kadungle project sits in the highly prospective Narromine Volcanic Belt within the Lachlan Transfer Zone that hosts the Northparkes gold-copper deposit.
Some of the historic drilling at Kadungle intersected epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold with best assays of 12m at 7.7g/t gold and 0.12% copper from 62m and 37m at 0.23% copper including 6m at 1.1% copper from 560m.
The drill programme for Kadungle consists of a minimum of 1,700m of diamond and RC drilling across two deep holes – with an ability to extend the holes based on visual results.
The NSW drilling grant will now reduce the direct drilling costs by 50% or ~$101,000.