Galileo Mining (ASX: GAL) has a potentially significant Volcanic Massive Sulphide (VMS) copper find on its hands at its Norseman cobalt-nickel project in Western Australia.
Sampling results from the new Subzero copper prospect at Norseman returned high-grade copper oxide samples of up to 19.9% copper and multiple iron rich gossan samples up to 1.1% copper.
The results were recorded from a zone of outcrop centred around historic workings. Further prospectivity exists to the north and south in the same rock unit over a 2-kilometre strike length, and to the west where the same prospective host rock occurs under shallow cover material.
“This is a fantastic result from initial work carried out by the Company based on our inhouse prospectivity analysis of mineral potential at Galileo’s Norseman Project,” Galileo Mining Managing Director Brad Underwood said.
“Our recently completed ultra-detailed magnetic survey has allowed us to undertake a geological interpretation of the area not possible by previous explorers. In doing so we have uncovered historic copper prospects that were last looked at in the 1970’s.”
Small scale production from the historic workings took place in the 1950’s with around 13 tonnes of ore extracted at an average grade of 8.36% copper. Regulatory issues at the time prevented the grant of a mine lease and no further work was recorded at the prospect.
Work completed in the 1970’s by Barrier Exploration at the Cowan West prospect – 1.3km to the southwest of Subzero – identified layers of volcanic material in diamond core drilling. No other work was conducted and Barrier’s attention returned to nickel exploration.
Mr Underwood said Galileo would now focus on building up the prospects to drill ready status through the use of modern electromagnetic (EM) surveying methods aimed at identifying significant sub-surface copper mineralisation.
Shares in Galileo have gained 3%, or 0.5c, to 17.5c on Tuesday.
