It is rare for the Eastern States to steal the exploration limelight from Western Australia.

But that’s been the case since Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK) stunned mining circles with the best porphyry copper/gold exploration hit in 20 years in NSW’s Lachlan Fold Belt at its Boda prospect.

Alkane shares have surged ~85 per cent to 71c since the Boda hit was announced on September 9.

Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY) has since added to the Eastern States interest by reporting a 40 per cent copper hit from a shallow and structurally controlled position at its Thursday’s Gossan prospect in western Victoria.

Its shares have rocketed 358 per cent to $1.10 since the shallow copper hit was announced on September 26.

Needless to say, investors have been scrambling in the wake of the copper-gold excitement to gain exposure to other porphyry copper-gold exploration programs in the Eastern States.

It is on that basis that explorers Alice Queen (ASX:AQX) and DevEx (ASX:DEV) have been chased 111 per cent and 54 per cent higher to 3.8c and 9.9c respectively for their upcoming NSW programs since the Alkane hit was announced.

 

READ: Who made the gains? Here are September’s top 50 small cap miners and explorers

 

Today’s interest though is in Carawine Resources (ASX:CWX) which was mentioned here by Garimpeiro back on August 1 when it was trading at 14c a share.

Carawine closed on Friday at 20c, a gain of 42 per cent since August 1.

 

While Garimpeiro would like to think the gain was a response to the August 1 yarn, it has more to do with the unfolding porphyry gold-copper story at Carawine’s Hill 800 deposit at its Jamieson project in Victoria’s north-eastern goldfields.

Garimpeiro’s original premise that Carawine’s coming drilling program in WA’s Paterson province will be one to watch still stands.

But Garimpeiro admits Carawine’s recent share price run has more to do with investor mania for Eastern State’s porphyry gold/gold exploration than it does with the company’s Paterson presence.

Garimpeiro assumes that it was also the Jamieson angle that recently attracted the likes of Queensland coal billionaire Chris Wallin who has just gone “substantial” in Carawine with a 6.28 per cent stake.

Hill 800 already ranks as an interesting project, with Carawine having done enough drilling to depths of around 150m to be in a position to post a maiden gold resource estimate well before Christmas.

A new drilling program kicks off next month to do the obvious – chase the open mineralisation (which has had some minor copper counts) down dip to grow the size of the resource.

In addition to that, Carawine is now setting out to test the deeper porphyry gold-copper potential of Hill 800.

It is advanced too, as Carawine was alert to the big-time porphyry potential long before Alkane and Stavely fired up investors.

First up, there was the assessment that surface prospects a bit away from Hill 800 had a magmatic intrusive porphyry flavour to them in terms of their chemistry.

Regional government geophysical date had also identified magnetic highs sitting at depth beneath Hill 800, as well as under the Rhyolite Creek zinc-gold-silver prospect, 5km to the south.

Carawine gathered up all the data, including that from the 19 holes it has drilled to date, and sent it off Scott Halley, a renowned geochemist.

The suggestion came back that the mineralisation and other elements encountered to date at Hill 800 are similar to what is seen in the alteration and systems above deeper porphyry systems.

So, what has been encountered to date could be an offshoot from a deeper porphyry system.

It is all exciting stuff and has prompted Carawine to fly a more detailed magnetic survey to refine some drill targets to test for a potential porphyry prize at depth.

First drill holes into the new porphyry target are likely late this (calendar) year, or early next year.

READ MORE about Carawine:

Carawine is chasing giants in Victoria and WA

Carawine is drilling in Victoria with one eye firmly on Winu nearology play

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