Artemis expands copper-gold search with Cassowary in the bag

• Artemis granted key licence covering the Cassowary intrusion
• The area has been overlooked by previous explorers and majors working in WA’s Nullarbor region
• Geophysical surveys and drilling are planned once heritage survey is signed off

Special report: Artemis Resources has been awarded Exploration Licence E69/4266 covering the large Cassowary Intrusion as well as three other adjacent targets with similarities to IOCG and intrusion-related copper-gold systems.

The exploration licence, 440km east of Kalgoorlie and accessible via the Trans rail line road, covers several undrilled intrusions within a 30-40km wide interpreted rift zone below an estimated 250–300m of consolidated Eucla Basin sediments.

This zone is expected to include metamorphosed sediments, mafic volcanic units and intrusions based on sparse drilling across the Madura Province and available geophysical data.

E69/4266 covers the northern part of the interpreted rift zone bounded by the Madura Crustal Boundary to the west and an un-named geological domain to the east.

Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) recently expanded its tenement footprint in the region to around 990km2, positioned south of two iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) prospective applications held by WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1).

NYSE-listed Teck Resources is also active in the area and has applied for tenements along the same crustal boundary, ~100km southwest of Cassowary.

Teck is the former owner of the Carrapateena IOCG deposit in South Australia, now mined by BHP Group (ASX:BHP).

A hidden gem

ARV managing director Julian Hanna previously spent 12 years building Western Areas (ASX:WSA) from a start-up into a profitable underground nickel producer, which was later acquired by IGO (ASX:IGO) in a ~$1 billion deal.

He said the seven-month application period for Cassowary had been put to good use by ARV chief geologist Oliver Hirst, who made “excellent progress” in building understanding of the unique potential of the area, which has been overlooked by previous explorers and majors in the region.

“Only two holes (BKD 1 and BKD 2) are recorded as having been drilled within the area by Gunson Resources in 2009, with both reporting elevated copper in a Proterozoic mafic intrusion, 25km southeast of Cassowary,” he said.

“The Cassowary Intrusion is a rare opportunity to explore the potential for large-scale IOCG type copper-gold deposits and other deposit types including nickel-copper-PGE (mafic intrusion type) and gold (hydrothermal vein systems) in an area with effectively no prior drilling.

“We look forward to reporting progress at Cassowary in the lead up to the initial drilling program and the team at Artemis is working hard to get drilling underway as soon as possible.”

Upcoming exploration work 

Artemis is well funded to conduct geophysical surveys and kick off initial drilling at Cassowary following a $4.75m placement in July.

A further application has been made for a large exploration licence (EL69/4330 for 447km2) to cover additional interpreted intrusions in the southern part of the rift zone.

At the company’s North Pilbara gold province properties, RC drilling will begin in September at Titan prospect, near the Carlow gold-copper resource, followed by extensional drilling at Carlow.

This article was developed in collaboration with Artemis Resources, 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.