Base Metals: Alchemy, Sandfire brew up more copper-gold hits near DeGrussa

Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY) has something to cheer about this morning after its partner Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) made further encouraging copper and gold hits at their Bryah Basin project southwest of the DeGrussa copper-gold mine in Western Australia.

The latest results from the phase-one aircore drilling campaign include 5m at 6.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 100m, 5m at 0.15 per cent copper and 0.69g/t gold from 75m, and 30m at 0.5g/t gold from 55m.

Alchemy said the latest hits are from wide spaced drilling and have not been followed with infill holes to date.

It added that the majority of anomalous gold and copper results from the aircore drilling to date have been returned from two sub-parallel mineralised zones immediately east of the Churchill prospect and from the substantial gravity high at the Neptune prospect.

A detailed electromagnetic survey is underway to further improve targeting of the host volcanogenic massive sulphide horizon.

Alchemy also confirmed that it is now free-carried on further exploration by Sandfire until the completion of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) after the copper-gold producer exceeded the $6m earn-in requirement to secure a 70 per cent stake in the Bryah Basin project.

Beyond the PFS, Alchemy will pay for its share of expenditure on an interest-free deferred basis up to $5m from its future share of production profits.

“Sandfire’s aircore drilling program has been very productive and appears to be confirming the potential for significant copper and gold mineralisation at the Churchill and Neptune prospects,” Alchemy managing director Leigh Ryan said.

“We’re certainly looking forward to more significant drilling results from the follow-up aircore and RC drilling in those areas over the coming months.”

In other ASX base metals news today:

Further to the south, St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) has extended known mineralisation at the Investigators prospect within its flagship Mt Alexander project in the northeastern Goldfields region. The company said the thickening of the mineralised ultramafic in this eastern area after a large step-out hole extended known mineralisation by 60m, suggests a potential vector to more nickel-copper sulphides in the east

Drilling also confirmed the down-dip extension of Investigators mineralisation about 50m to the north, which points to the potential to discover more nickel-copper sulphides at depth and to the north, according to the company.

Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) has secured approval to drill seven of the 13 targets it has identified at the Armada project, which surrounds Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) and Greatland Gold’s Havieron gold-copper discovery on three sides. Executive director Ed Mead said that Newcrest and Greatland had five drill rigs on site at Havieron and that any exploration success at that project would provide targeting information for Artemis’ drill planning on its project.

Over in Africa, Castillo Copper (ASX:CCZ) has received an independent nod on the exploration potential of its copper projects in Zambia. These include the Lumwana North and South projects that are located just 50km from Barrick Golds’ Lumwana project, which produced 224 million pounds of copper in 2018. The company will now formulate exploration plans and carry out fieldwork ahead of its planned listing on the London Stock Exchange.