Firetail identifies 800m of potential Cyprus-style copper at Skyline

• Firetail Resources’ sampling confirms potential for Cyprus-style deposit at Earl’s Target
• Result highlights untapped exploration potential of Skyline project where work to date has focused on York Harbour
• 3DIP surveying has started on the Governor’s Target to enable direct modelling of sulphide-rich zone

Special Report: Firetail Resources has defined an 800m strike trend of copper volcanogenic massive sulphide-style mineralisation at Earl’s Target within its Skyline copper project in Newfoundland, Canada.

Earl’s Target was first identified in the 1960s by Brinex as the location of an historical adit, which is now known to be one of several adits and associated waste dumps that indicate previously undocumented workings targeting high-grade mineralisation.

It has not been subject to modern exploration such as magnetic, IP or electromagnetic surveys.

Firetail Resources (ASX:FTL) recently carried out mapping and collected 13 samples along an 800m interpreted strike length.

These returned rock chip results of up to 18.19% copper, which confirms the high-grade nature of mineralisation.

The company said the absence of zinc and other base metals, which were found in the nearby York Harbour Mine sequence, supported a Cyprus-style deposit model for exploration targeting.

Cyprus-style deposits are mafic-type VMS deposits, which have been in production in Cyprus since 5,000BC until recent times with modern production totalling 72Mt of massive sulphide ore.

This is supported by the stratigraphic sequence at Skyline being identical to the Troodos ophiolite sequence in Cyprus that hosts the Mavrovouni deposit that has produced 17Mt at 4.5% copper and more than 30 historical mines.

“The identification of the Earl’s Target Zone – which sits outside of any area previously covered by geophysics – is a testament to the outstanding untapped exploration potential of the Skyline Project,” managing director Glenn Poole said.

“Exploration to date has really only focused in on the York Harbour Mine Zone.

“This target area has not undergone any geophysical surveys and is yet to be drill tested, however samples taken from the mineralisation have reported exceptional grades of up to 18.19% copper.

“Furthermore, we have submitted representative samples of the mineralisation for petrophysical analysis. This will help us determine the best geophysical tools to directly target what appears to be very different mineralogy to what we have observed at the York Harbour Mine sequence.”

Other activity

FTL has started a high-resolution 3D induced polarisation survey across the Governor’s Target Zone that will be followed by a high-resolution magnetic survey.

The 3DIP survey will allow the company to directly model the sulphide-rich target at Governor’s while the magnetic survey across the ophiolite sequence, which has a strike length of 8km by 2.5km, will identify areas that have been demagnetised from structure and/or the alteration associated with emplacement of mineralisation.

“Targets like Earl’s, which are exposed at surface, only represent a fraction of Skyline’s mineralisation potential, with the geological setting supporting the potential for further blind targets along the strike extents of the ophiolite sequence.” Poole added.

“This high-resolution magnetic survey across the entire ophiolite sequence, which extends for 8.0km of strike across a 2.5km belt, has the potential to identify numerous additional unrecognised targets under cover.”

Due diligence for the potential acquisitions of the Excelsior Springs and Bella gold projects in Nevada and South Dakota respectively is also progressing well.

At Excelsior Springs, the company has started reprocessing and interpretation of geophysics while 3D modelling is now underway using available drilling and geological information to facilitate drill targeting of gold mineralisation.

Meanwhile, further data acquisition, targeting and modelling is underway at Bella.

“This due diligence program aims to substantially derisk the assets and position Firetail to immediately commence exploration upon completion of the transactions, which is scheduled for late July,” Poole said.

Excelsior Springs sits within the >40Moz Walker Lane Tectonic Zone and has historical production of 19,200oz at 41g/t gold from shallow underground workings, while Bella  lies within the world-class Homestake Gold Belt.

This article was developed in collaboration with Firetail 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.