Artemis Resources has decided it’s time to step up its effort in the hotly talked about Paterson province.

Better known for its exploits in other parts of WA’s highly resource-fertile Pilbara region, Artemis (ASX:ARV) told investors today that it now plans to start exploring its 600 sq km Armada prospect in the Paterson.

Artemis revealed in July that it had beaten Rio Tinto to the large patch of ground by about three hours.

Another junior in the area, Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR), also beat the mining giant to two tenements — by about five hours.

Not coincidentally, Artemis’ news follows reports by London-listed Greatland Gold of a “world class” 275m thick intersection and “remarkable” peak gold and copper grades of 211.3 grams per tonne (g/t) and 8.45 per cent, respectively.

Anything over 5g/t gold and 6 per cent copper is usually considered high-grade.

The result was delivered from the first hole of the current drilling program at Greatland’s Havieron project, located near Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) rumoured big copper discovery.

“With increasing newsflow about Rio Tinto’s exploration efforts in the Patersons Range and the recent excellent gold-copper results from Greatland Gold’s Haverion project that is contiguous to Artemis’ Armada prospect, the time to further investigate our ground is right,” executive director Ed Mead said.

“To kick off our exploration in this highly prospective region a detailed high resolution magnetic survey will now commence.”

The location of Artemis' Armada prospect. Image: Artemis Resources.
The location of Artemis’ Armada prospect. Image: Artemis Resources.

The news nudged shares up over 3 per cent to 15.5 per cent on Thursday morning.

Artemis’ Armada prospect is located about 40km east of Newcrest Mining’s (ASX:NCM) Telfer mine, which hosts 27 million ounces of gold and 1 million tonnes of copper.

It also located near Metals X’s (ASX:MLX) 2-million-tonne Nifty copper mine.

A year after rumours started emerging about Rio’s copper discovery in the Paterson, aerial images showed a new camp, drill rigs, a helicopter landing site and other infrastructure.

The sudden ramp-up in activity kicked off rumours that Rio is onto something big, but the mining giant is playing its cards close to its chest for now.

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