NSW-focused gold and copper explorer Magmatic Resources (ASX: MAG) has mobilised a diamond drill rig to the Lady Ilse District within the Wellington North Project in in the search for a “Boda” type discovery.
An initial core hole will test a high priority gold-copper porphyry target defined by coincident gold and porphyry pathfinder anomalism (Te-Bi-As), pyrite-rich (alkalic lithocap) porphyry alteration, chargeability and conductivity geophysical features.
Managing Director Peter Duerden said the company has applied the ‘Cadia East Exploration Model’ and descriptions from Alkane’s nearby Boda porphyry discovery to guide its exploration in the Lady Ilse District.
Key features of both Cadia East and Boda are present at Lady Ilse with the scale of the pyrite halo suggested by the datasets in the Lady Ilse District highlighting a much larger scale opportunity than Boda, with the potential for preservation of a Cadia East scale gold-copper porphyry system.
Magmatic’s 100%-owned Wellington North Project covers the northern extension of the Molong Volcanic Belt, located ~100km north and along strike from Newcrest’s world-class Cadia Valley porphyry gold-copper deposits.
The project comprises three exploration licenses and is considered highly prospective for gold-copper porphyry, gold epithermal and lode style gold mineralisation.
The recent Boda porphyry discovery by Alkane Resources Ltd has highlighted the value of Magmatic’s dominant surrounding tenure position in the northern Molong Belt, in what is emerging as a significant gold porphyry discovery hotspot.
The discovery has highlighted the surface signature of porphyry mineralisation and has had an immediate impact on the ranking of Magmatic’s exploration targets, with several upgraded for Boda-style and Cadia East- style porphyry gold-copper mineralisation, e.g. Lady Ilse, Rose Hill, Ninety and Mayhurst.
Lady Ilse District gold-copper porphyry targets exhibit the same characteristics at the equivalent stage of exploration as the Boda porphyry discovery.
Mr Duerden said the company considers that the scale of the pyrite halo (alkalic lithocap) alteration suggested by the datasets at the Lady Ilse District highlight a much larger scale opportunity than Boda, with the potential for preservation of a Cadia East scale gold-copper porphyry system.
