The company has defined four priority prospect areas for drilling. Pic: via Getty Images.
Mining
Far East Gold has begun detailed geological mapping at the Sentul and Buluroto prospects at Trenggalek, an Indonesian copper-gold project which has attracted the attention of one of the world’s biggest miners.
One of 2022’s best performing ASX IPOs, Far East Gold (ASX:FEG) recently attracted a new strategic investor in mining giant Eurasian Resources Group (ERG).
Far East says ERG is particularly interested in the Trenggalek copper-gold project in East Java, which FEG took 100% ownership of in June this year.
The project — identified as a top 3 priority greenfield gold project by the Indonesian Government – is highly prospective for epithermal and porphyry related copper, gold and base metal deposits and contains 12 defined prospect areas.
It has already seen significant advanced exploration including some 17,786m of drilling, 3,675km of airborne magnetic and radiometric survey, a surface geochemistry survey consisting of more than 10,500 soil and 5,000 rock samples, and induced polarisation resistivity geophysics.
Despite this, it remains relatively unexplored, Far East says.
Far East has identified four priority prospects for next phases of advanced copper exploration: Sentul – Buluroto, Singgahan, Sumber Bening, and Jerambah.
Field mapping and sampling is underway at Sentul and Buluroto, which represent epithermal vein and sulphide breccia type exploration drill targets.
Previous drilling at Buluroto also intersected significant copper mineralisation within a quartz-sulphide breccia “and represents a priority porphyry-related drill target”, the company says.
Mapping and sampling will kick off soon at Singgahan, which is also prospective for large scale copper-gold porphyries.
The Trenggalek project is smack bang in the Sunda-Banda Arc, which is recognized as an important metallogenic belt host to several world-class porphyry and related mineral deposits including Tujuh Bukit/Tumpangpitu, Batu Hijau and Onto/Hu’u.
The Sunda-Banda Arc also hosts the company’s advanced Randu Kuning copper-gold deposit at Wonogiri, and the Martabe high-sulphidation gold mine in North Sumatra operated by PT Agincourt Resources.
The company’s Woyla property in also located within the northern extension of the Sunda Banda Arc system.
Despite having seen considerable previous exploration work completed, Trenggalek remains comparatively underexplored with significant copper and gold resource potential, the company says.
Pic: The Trenggalek IUP-OP is located within the Sunda-Banda Arc, which extends from eastern Indonesia to north Sumatra. Source: FEG.
ERG is a privately held diversified natural resources group which owns integrated mining, processing, energy and logistics operations for a range of commodities across Eurasia, Africa and Brazil.
The group is also in the world’s top 3 producers of cobalt. In 2021, reporting annual revenues of USD$8.53Bn with an underlying EBITDA of USD$4.21Bn that included copper production of more than 200,000t.
FEG says ERG’s global reach, resources, and expertise will undoubtedly catalyse the company’s growth and de-risk project and jurisdictional risk.
“ERG’s substantial investment is strong endorsement in Far East Gold’s vision, strategy, and future growth potential,” the company said.
“This significant infusion of capital not only strengthens our financial foundation but also underscores the trust ERG places in our team and our portfolio, to deliver exceptional results for shareholders.”
FEG has also granted ERG a right of first refusal over the project (if they maintain a minimum holding of 8,000,000 shares in FEG) to match or better any offer FEG receives to sell any interest in Trenggalek within 30 calendar days.
Based on the results of previous exploration, FEG believes that the Trenggalek property is host to different deposit styles at variable levels of erosion, and that each of the deposit styles identified holds “significant resource potential.”
Looking forward, planned drilling at Buluroto will test the sulphide breccia zone and the high-magnetic body adjacent to it.
At the Singgahan and Jerambah prospects, the company has finalised an initial 5 hole, 3,200m drill plan to test 5 of the defined targets as potential copper-gold mineralized porphyry bodies.
Additional holes will follow if warranted.
This article was developed in collaboration with Far East Gold, 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.
Mining
Mining
Mining
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
