Copper and gold exploration company Native Mineral Resources Holdings Limited (ASX: NMR) has received excellent initial results from its phase 1 reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling programme currently underway at the Leane’s Copper Prospect in North Queensland.
Managing Director, Blake Cannavo, said the first hole has intersected porphyry veins at a depth of 90m and will be extended by diamond coring to provide detailed geological information at depth testing for the presence of a larger intrusive system below the skarn- breccia zone
These are truly impressive indications from our initial drilling programme at Palmerville and it is certainly an exciting time for NMR,” Mr Cannavo said.
“Our first five holes have intersected shallow skarn-style breccia with elevated copper grades based on portable XRF measurements, which is a strong validation of the exploration strategy we have implemented, also demonstrating that our exploration and mineralisation model for Leane’s is spot on.
“Every hole completed so far has intersected shallow skarn-style breccia with elevated copper grades and our first deeper hole has intersected porphyry veins suggesting the presence of a larger intrusive system below the skarn-breccia zone.
“Following these encouraging early results from shallow drilling, our field crew is now ready to commence a diamond drillhole to test mineralisation at depth as the current drillhole has intersected porphyry veins suggesting the presence of a larger intrusive system below the skarn-breccia zone.
“The first tranche of samples has been dispatched for analysis and we look forward to receiving the results in December.
“In parallel, we are also planning our 2021 exploration programmes for both the Palmerville and Eastern Goldfields Projects and look forward to testing several other priority targets over the coming months.”
The Leane’s Copper Prospect is in the central area of the Palmerville Project, located 200km west-northwest of Cairns in North Queensland. It was originally discovered in 2007 by Lodestone Exploration Limited (“Lodestone”) when outcrops containing malachite veining were mapped at surface. Subsequent exploration, including detailed soil geochemistry identified strongly anomalous copper over a 1,200m extent along a north-northwest trending brecciated contact between limestone to the west and siliciclastic sediments, and locally basalt to the east.
In 2010, Lodestone completed a shallow eight drillhole RC programme to test the copper soil anomalies over a 500 m strike length, plus two drillholes further south to test gold anomalies.
The best intervals in that programme intersected 28m @ 0.55% Cu in drillhole LRC004, 4m @ 0.55% Cu in drillhole LRC003, and 11m @ 0.32% Cu in drillhole LRC002. All drilling intersected the breccia zone in the weathered horizon. No further exploration has been undertaken at Leane’s since 2010.
NMR considers that Leane’s is analogous to the Red Dome and Mungana deposits some 100km to the south. Red Dome and Mungana are examples of porphyry gold and base metal systems in which the economic mineral content is either disseminated or hosted in vein networks within the intrusive body itself or as a surrounding halo in the host rocks.
A 2,000m RC/diamond drilling programme will follow up and extend the shallow drilling completed at the Prospect in 2010. This programme will infill gaps in the previous program and test the shallow skarn/breccia copper zone (Phase 1) as well as target the interpreted deeper porphyry-related copper-gold mineralisation (Phase 2).
