Rio Tinto Exploration is managing and operating the exploration activities whilst it is farming-in at West Paterson. Pic: via Getty Images.
Carawine JV partner Rio Tinto gets drilling in hunt for the next Winu copper-gold giant
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- RTX can earn up to an 80% interest in the Baton and Red Dog tenements
- 3,000-5,000m of RC drilling is underway targeting gold, copper, zinc
- West Paterson is within 100km of Nifty and Winu copper deposits
- Drill program is expected to be completed in 2 months
Drilling is now testing several targets at the Carawine Resources-Rio Tinto West Paterson JV, within 100km of the Nifty copper deposit and Rio’s monster Winu copper-gold discovery in WA.
The discovery of the tier 1 Winu deposit in 2019 was a shot in the arm for the underexplored Paterson Province and the explorers with ground in the region, including Carawine Resources (ASX:CWX).
Liking the look of Carawine’s nearby West Paterson project, Rio’s exploration arm RTX inked a $5.5m, 6-year farm in later the same year.
The mining major has the right to earn a 70 per cent interest in the two tenements by spending at least $5.5m within six years and can increase this to 80 per cent by sole funding to a discovery milestone or completing a scoping study on any discovery.
Targeting Winu and Nifty-like deposits
The new 3,000-5,000m RC drilling program is designed to test several large-scale targets on the Baton and Red Dog tenements.
RTX is targeting gold, copper, zinc and other base metal sulphide mineralisation identified from geophysical surveys, historic data, and geological interpretations.
Targets at Baton include airborne electromagnetic (AEM) anomaly BEM001, magnetic and gravity anomalies at Herb and Wheeler, and the Buzzer structural target.
At Red Dog, targets include Nifty-analogue copper targets within interpreted Broadhurst Formation shale at Clouser and Marquess, and an AEM anomaly targeting intrusion-related copper-gold at WB (Earl).
Drilling to take 2 months
In total, 8 to 14 holes are planned at Baton, and 6 to 12 holes are planned at Red Dog.
There is flexibility to immediately follow-up encouraging geology or alteration intersected in initial drill holes.
“This is the second drilling program by Rio Tinto on the West Paterson JV tenements, and the first to include a number of priority targets at Baton,” MD David Boyd said.
“We’re pleased to see drilling commence and look forward to updating the market with results of the program as they become available.”
The program is expected to be completed over the next two months.
In the meantime, planning is underway for initial exploration programs on Carawine’s 100%-owned Paterson tenements, starting with a heritage survey over targets on the Cable tenement.
This article was developed in collaboration with Carawine 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.
