Encounter Resources Ltd (ASX:ENR) has received promising first assay results from the recent diamond drill programme at Lamil, 25km northwest of the major gold-copper mine at Telfer in Western Australia.
Managing Director, Will Robinson, said Lamil is adjacent to a significant regional gravity lineament which marks the location of a sizeable structure and deformation zone that would have acted as a pathway for ore forming fluids during the formation of the Proterozoic aged deposits.
Seven diamond holes were completed in the recent program, including three diamond tails on existing RC holes and four new diamond holes from the surface. Three separate target areas were drilled at Dune as well as a previously untested magnetic anomaly located north of the main Dune corridor.
Previous RC drilling at Dune defined an expansive copper-gold system over 1km of strike. Diamond drilling has confirmed that the copper-gold mineralisation at Dune is depth extensive and vertically zoned,” Mr Robinson said.
“High-grade copper mineralisation of this nature is not common in the Paterson Province and these results are considered highly encouraging. We only have a handful of assays back so far and eagerly await results from other drilling completed at Lamil.
“In particular, ETG0243 drilled 200m along strike from the high-grade mineralisation in ETG0226, has intersected Telfer analogous host units that have been intensely altered and contain quartz carbonate veining with copper sulphides.
“In addition, diamond drill hole ETG0241, the first hole drilled into a previously untested 1km long magnetic anomaly, has intersected a wide, pyrrhotite dominant, quartz-sulphide breccia with associated disseminated and blebby copper sulphides.
“Given the association of pyrrhotite with copper-gold mineralisation in recent discoveries in the region, it will be interesting to see the level of gold in this hole.
“The current diamond drilling program at Lamil has been highly successful, defining a depth extensive stockwork corridor that contains high grade copper mineralisation, as well as opening up a new and potential significant, mineral system to the north of Dune.”
Dune Prospect
Dune sits in the northwest of the Lamil project area and consists of a laterally-extensive gold-copper system, outlined by broad spaced RC drilling over 1km of strike. The mineralisation at Dune is located on the fold axis in the northern part of the Lamil Dome.
The RC drill programme completed in February 2021 at Dune extended the copper-gold system both to the south and east and contained strong copper-gold intersections including: 132m @ 0.31g/t Au and 0.11% Cu from 87m to end of hole in ETG0227 1, including 22m @ 0.51g/t Au and 0.24% Cu from 181m Diamond tail of ETG0226.
The diamond tail of ETG0226 (located on the same section 80m south-west of ETG0227) was completed to a depth of 710m. This hole intersected a thick zone of quartzite containing zones of intense alteration, silica flooding, veining and brecciation. ETG0226 includes a 1.5m intersection of semi-massive pyrite and chalcocite from 409.1m.
Two zones totalling 44.6m of core were selected from ETG0226 for priority analysis to determine the copper and gold grade of the semi-massive pyrite and chalcocite zone. This analysis returned: 1.5m @ 19.1% Cu from 409.1m sitting directly above; o 3.9m @ 1.6g/t Au from 410.6m (last interval sampled assayed 0.7g/t Au).
ETG0243
Testing the mineralised corridor 200m along strike of ETG0226 and ETG0227 ETG0243 was drilled to test the stockwork corridor intersected in ETG0226 and ETG0227 200m, along strike to the north-west.
This hole intersected a similar geological sequence as seen in ETG0226 being altered siltstones and brecciated quartzite with interbedded siltstones. Both of these units contain quartz carbonate veining with pyrite and chalcopyrite (copper sulphide).
ETG0241 – Testing a large magnetic anomaly north of Dune ETG0241 was the first hole drilled into a new target located to the north of the Dune corridor. The hole was designed to test a +1km long, east-west trending magnetic anomaly.
ETG0241 successfully tested the modelled anomaly and intersected a ~25m wide zone of pyrrhotite-dominant quartz-sulphide breccia that contains disseminations and blebs of chalcopyrite from 310m. This quartz sulphide breccia zone becomes progressively more sulphide rich to 335m with intervals of up to ~50% sulphide (pyrrhotite dominant).
