Inca Minerals Limited (ASX: ICG) has successfully completed an extensive AMAGRAD survey over its Jean Elson Project in the Northern Territory.
The survey included 29,382.73-line kilometres of magnetics and radiometric data collection and covered over 90% of the project area.
Jean Elson AMAGRAD Survey
The survey was co-funded under the Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations (GDC) program of the Northern Territory Government’s (NTG) $26 million “Resourcing the Territory” initiative. Upon satisfying the provisions of the GDC, the Company will be reimbursed $100,000 from the NTG.
The purpose of the survey was to better define the Mt Cornish South and Camel Creek targets and to identify possible other exploration targets that may occur in the project area.
The Mount Cornish South and Camel Creek (Ningaloo and Sunset Boulevarde) prospect areas are prospective for iron oxide, copper and gold (IOCG) and intrusive-related mineralisation.
Preliminary Interpretations
Little can be (or should be) accomplished in terms of target generation prior to data modelling. Nevertheless, the total magnetics of the survey clearly shows a strong northwest-southeast structure that “slices” through the central parts of Jean Elson. This corresponds to the known craton margin of the East Arunta Block.
Craton/domain/basin structures, like those being identified in the emerging Tennant East IOCG province (where the Company’s Frewena Group Project is located), are believed to be “conduits” to deep crust/upper mantle upwellings and, as such, are focal points for intrusions and hydrothermal activity.
Faults swarms may also develop in association with these types of large-scale regional structures, creating further areas of crustal weakness and susceptibility to intrusions and upwelling hydrothermal systems. The gold provinces of Tanami and Tennant Creek and the copper provinces of Redbank/McArthur River and Mt Isa/Cloncurry occur on such structurally “fragile” areas.
Camel Creek
The Camel Creek Prospect hosts a northwest-southeast trending gold ± copper ± silver – iron rich vein swarm that forms a corridor approximately 1.5m across, with individual veins up to 5m wide (true width). The Ningaloo Vein Swarm is believed to be the upper mineralised part of a possible large cohesive mineral deposit at depth. An IOCG and/or intrusive-related exploration model is applied to both Camel Creek and Mt Cornish South.
What’s Next
Quality assessments of the AMAGRAD data have been completed, paving the way for data modelling and analysis, interpretation, and target generation to be undertaken. It is anticipated that this work will take approximately 4 to 6 weeks to completed. Once received, the Company will report all relevant information on the results to the market.
The AMAGRAD survey currently being conducted at Frewena (parts of Frewena Far East, Frewena East and most of Frewena Frontier) is 72% complete. Like the Jean Elson survey, the current Frewena survey is government co-funded.
Management Comment
Commenting on the completion of the Jean Elson AMAGRAD survey, Inca Managing Director Ross Brown said: “No previous survey of this kind has ever been completed for the emerging East Arunta mineral province. Combined with our current knowledge of Camel Creek and Mt Cornish South, these geophysical data sets will significantly advance our understanding of the prospectivity of the project areas. Even prior to modelling and target generation, the occurrence of major structures tha t control the developments and emplacement of potential Tier-1 deposits is evident.”