Drilling at the Whundo copper project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region continues to deliver excellent grades for Artemis Resources with results pointing to a potential significant increase in resources at the project.
A total of 36 angled drill holes have been drilled for 2,928 metres at Whundo which lies only 15 kilometres from Artemis’ Radio Hill plant which is currently being refurbished.
Best intercepts include 10 metres at 0.39% cobalt from 87 metres including 1 metre at 1.75% cobalt from 88 metres, 6 metres at 6.55% zinc from 42 metres, 13 metres at 3.18% copper and 3.95% zinc from 48 metres.
“We have now confirmed the presence of significant widths of high grade copper, cobalt and zinc zones at our Whundo Copper Mine, which is located only 15 km from the Radio Hill Plant,” Artemis’ Chairman David Lenigas said.
Mr Lenigas said the holes would be incorporated in to a new JORC compliant resource estimate prior to the Radio Hill Plant being recommissioned.
We also have seven key POWs (Proof of Work) in the system with the DMIRS that, on approval, will allow us to move forward with key projects the company is seeking to do in the next month, including the first meaningful bulk sampling programme for gold at Artemis’ 47 Patch.”
The drilling was designed to allow gamma density logging of copper rich and zinc rich zones. The drilling is also designed to test extensions to mineralisation where the existing resource model indicated additional potential to delineate new mineralisation within and adjacent to the existing open pit.
The drilling also aims to validate historical drill results from vertical drill holes and confirm assay grades from previous drilling, allow downhole density measurements for resource estimation and test mineralisation that potentially exists outside current resource models.
The high-grade intercepts occur to the north and east of the old Whundo copper open pit operated by Whim Creek Consolidated in 1977.
Once all assays have been received, Artemis will then seek to revise the existing JORC resource estimate and upgrade it to be compliant with JORC 2012.
This will be done prior to the restart of operations at the Radio Hill processing plant.
Today’s news comes after positive results from a pit optimisation of the company’s Carlow Castle cobalt-copper-gold project near Karratha, Western Australia.
Shares in Artemis were trading 0.7c higher at 17.2c.