Eagle Mountain Mining has secured access to a significant copper-gold area known as Golden Eagle, just 3km from its Oracle Ridge project in Arizona.

Eagle Mountain’s (ASX:EM2) 80% owned subsidiary Wedgetail Operations has signed an access agreement facilitating low disturbance exploration activities on patented claims held by Pima County which are prospective for gold-copper-silver mineralisation.

The new project area sits less than 3km from the historic Oracle Ridge mine and hosts multiple historical gold-copper mines which EM2 believes suggest large-scale prospectivity.

The agreement with Pima County also extends to zones within the prospective area known by the company as OREX, which runs contiguous to the Oracle Ridge mine tenements.

Eagle Mountain Gold
The Oracle Ridge area, including newly granted claims. Pic: supplied

Wedgetail plans to begin geological mapping and soil sampling on the Golden Eagle claims this month, with an initial diamond drilling program planned to test extensions to previously mined gold copper mineralisation expected to begin late in Q2.

This exploration will guide broader geological modelling and assist in vectoring towards the source of existing scarn mineralisation, as well as potentially defining high-grade gold and copper mineralisation.

History beckons

The Golden Eagle project contains a number of historical workings, with details acquired from a series of reports compiled over many years.

Historical reports on the Pima County patented claims stated the following:

  • At the Apache Claim, grades of greater than 30 grams per tonne gold have been reported in shafts;
  • At the Adler No 2 claim, grades of 8% copper have been reported from shafts and cuts.
  • At the Maricopa claim, grades of 12% copper have been found at the back of the tunnel, and;
  • Wide zones of potential copper and gold mineralisation have been reported at the Comanche and Adobe claims.

Nearby historical workings include the Sanderson gold mine, which is located on a private property adjacent to Wedgetail’s claims and is not included in the access agreement.

However, the mine area shares similar geology to nearby claims prospective for gold, copper and silver, and was successfully mined as an underground operation between 1936 and 1941.

During that time, production was reported to have averaged 13.7 grams per tonne gold, 22.3g/t silver and 0.46% copper.

Individual smelter batches showed high values of 8% copper, 212g/t gold and 259g/t silver, and returns showed an inverse gold-copper relationship – the higher the copper the lower the gold, and vice versa.

Given the age of the production data, Wedgetail has no way of verifying it.

The new claims also grant access to an area at OREX entirely surrounded by Wedgetail’s previously reported unpatented claims.

Access agreements allow for high-level field mapping of parcels and the collection of rock-chip samples, with no ground disturbance allowed without express permission.

Eagle Mountain said it remained focused on copper exploration around Oracle Ridge and was in advanced discussion with drill contractors to supply an additional drill rig to enable drilling of additional targets, including those on Golden Eagle and potentially at OREX.

EM2 recently appointed experienced Arizona copper veteran Manuel Ramos as CEO of its US operations, days before announcing it had intersected 12m at 3.47% copper and 50.22g/t silver in drilling at Oracle Ridge.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Eagle Mountain Mining, 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.

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