The new copper targets at the Surprise project have been derived from a combination of geophysical data and historical soil results. Pic: Getty Images
Antares finds three new copper targets to drill test
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- Three new copper targets have been earmarked for drill testing at
Surprise - Phase 2 drilling will target extension opportunities to help grow the deposit’s potential
Special Report: Copper explorer Antares Metals is keen to start testing three new targets identified at the Surprise project in an upcoming Phase 2 drilling campaign, beginning after the end of the wet season in Queensland.
The first phase of drilling last year confirmed copper grades as high as 15.8% copper and up to 13.1g/t gold.
Antares Metals (ASX:AM5) is now looking to extend the known mineralisation following the completion of several geophysical surveys including high-definition magnetics and a 3DIP survey.
Through geophysical and geochemical data analysis, the company outlined several compelling anomalies, resulting in three extensional targets to be tested in the next phase of drilling work.
The three targets are located within 1.5km north of the Surprise mine and contain soil samples greater than 100ppm copper, all associated with mapped quartz and calcite veins, as well as geophysical anomalies.
Since the mineralisation is known to be hosted by the veins, AM5 believes the correlation is a strong positive for target identification.
Historical Surprise copper production
The Surprise project sits within the company’s wider Mt Isa North asset, about 80km northeast of Mount Isa, and surrounds Paladin Energy’s (ASX:PDN) Valhalla asset, the third largest uranium project in Australia after Olympic Dam and Jabiluka.
The 2.5 km-long Surprise trend is centred on the abandoned high-grade copper-gold Surprise mine, where historical mining exploited a 3m to 10m thick mineralised calcite vein and recorded production of ~5,600t grading between 10% to 22% copper and 2 to 4 g/t gold with silver.
Deposits within the company’s tenure are also extremely prospective for uranium with rock chip results at Queens Gift returning up to 2.86% uranium.
Opportunities previously left untouched
AM5 CEO Johan Lambrechts said Phase 1 drilling spurred the company on to identify and test the extensional opportunities not yet tested by exploration.
“The uncanny correlation between the magnetic anomaly beneath the mine and the mineralisation identified by existing drilling underpins its usefulness in identifying potential extensional mineralisation,” he said.
“In addition, the 3DIP results allowed us to consider other characteristics of the potential mineralised body and contribute to the magnetic data by highlighting chargeability and resistivity anomalies associated with known mineralisation.
“Combining these with the historical copper in soil geochemical results allowed the company to identify three distinct targets that represent potential extensions to the copper mineralisation at Surprise.”
Exploration activities will kick off within a month, once access and native title clearance on the target areas have been completed.
The tender process of engaging an appropriate drill contractor is underway and will be completed shortly.
This article was developed in collaboration with Antares Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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