Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) says follow-up air-core drilling has provided further strong evidence of an emerging porphyry discovery at Toora West, part of its 100%-owned Stavely Copper-Gold Project in Victoria.
The company said further encouraging indications from drilling ~15km NW of the Thursday’s Gossan prospect provide a strong target for deeper diamond drilling.
Follow-up air-core drilling at the Toora West prospect has returned assay results including:
- 1.0m at 0.21% Cu from 32m down-hole, 1.0m at 0.12% Cu from 37m; and 3.0m at 0.25% Cu and 1.45g/t Ag from 45m;
- 5.0m at 0.22% Cu from 33m down-hole, including 2.0m at 0.38% Cu from 33m and 1.0m at 0.22% Cu from 45m (to end-of-hole);
- 1.0m at 0.44% Cu and 1.51g/t Ag from 55m down-hole;
- 1.0m at 20.4g/t Ag from 37m down-hole and 1.0m at 0.14% Cu and 198ppm molybdenum from 44m
Executive Chairman, Chris Cairns, said Toora West is located ~15km north-west of the Cayley Lode discovery at the Thursday’s Gossan prospect, where a major resource drill-out is continuing.
These air-core results confirm earlier clear indications of a second emerging porphyry discovery in the Stavely Volcanic Arc which will need to be tested by deeper diamond drilling as soon as practicable,” Mr Cairns said.
“To put these shallow air-core results in context, it’s worth recounting the early history of the discovery of the world-class Northparkes porphyries in NSW.
“Auger-core drill hole ACH697-21, drilled on Avadale Lane by Geopeko (the exploration arm of Peko-Walsend Limited) ‘intersected pink K-feldspar alteration and minor chalcopyrite-bornite mineralisation in 2m of core, assaying 0.25% Cu.
“Follow-up RAB drilling defined a large Cu-Au anomaly and in 1977 a diamond hole was drilled beneath the peak of the anomaly, returning 229 metres at 0.61% Cu and 0.67g/t Au from 65m.
“This account recalls the discovery of the E22 porphyry deposit, the first porphyry to be discovered in the Northparkes district.
“While investors are cautioned that not all air-core anomalies turn into mines, the low-grade sniffs produced by reconnaissance programs can turn into something more substantial with subsequent diamond drill testing.
“And while there are never guarantees in exploration, we certainly consider the early-stage results at Toora West to be very encouraging. It is worth noting that the Toora West prospect appears to have more of a copper-molybdenum porphyry flavour rather than a copper-gold porphyry at this early stage of evaluation.
“If confirmed by diamond drilling, this would highlight the prospectivity of the entire Stavely Volcanic Arc for additional discoveries – further leveraging our dominant, first-mover position in this under-explored district and complementing the emerging development project which we have at Thursday’s Gossan, where an advanced shallow Mineral Resource definition program is well advanced at the Cayley Lode.
“Importantly, Stavely Minerals has demonstrated an ability to target blind porphyry mineralisation under barren transported cover. “Our exploration team is currently prioritising a number of additional potential porphyry targets for reconnaissance exploration later in the year, after the winter rains.”
