Eagle Mountain’s confidence in the prospectivity of its Oracle Ridge copper-silver-gold mine is clearly highlighted by its mobilising a third rig to accelerate drilling.
While bringing on another rig just six weeks after mobilising a second rig makes the company’s opinion about the project clear, its plan to mobilise a further two rigs later this year just sets it in stone.
Eagle Mountain Mining’s (ASX:EM2) recent drilling on the western side of The Talon target returned significant results that indicated the potential for stacked mineralised zones.
The accelerated exploration program is aimed at expanding the existing JORC resource, test prospective new targets in the vicinity of the Oracle Ridge mine and establish high confidence Measured resources.
Oracle Ridge currently has a JORC resource of 12.2 million tonnes grading 1.51 per cent copper, 16g/t silver and 0.19g/t gold that is hosted in four stacked lodes.
“Our goal at Oracle Ridge is to build on the existing JORC Mineral Resource to support a potential mining operation,” chief executive officer Tim Mason said.
“We are currently drilling the eastern side of The Talon zone where we previously received some of the highest-grade copper assay recorded at the mine.
“We are also drilling at Golden Eagle, targeting structures and alteration to improve the broader geological understanding of the region.
“The third diamond drill rig will initially undertake infill drilling to improve the confidence of the Mineral Resource with the aim of defining resources in the ‘Measured’ category.”
Oracle Ridge
Oracle Ridge is located in an established copper district, with 18km of pre-existing underground workings close to its existing resources.
It was last mined in the 1990s and acquired by Eagle Mountain in November 2019.
Drilling outside the existing JORC resource, which extends more than 2km from north to south and is open in all directions, has already returned notable results such as further stacked lodes along with results of up 12m at 3.47% copper and 50.22g/t silver at just 70m below surface and 40m west of the existing resource.
Additionally, a technical report by world-renowned expert Dr Larry Meinert concluded that there was potentially additional copper-rich mineralisation at the southern extension of the mine and two areas identified as potential sources of the high-grade copper mineralisation.
He also determined that there were additional high-grade mineralisation opportunities beneath the Leatherwood granitic intrusion in the mine area.
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.