Godolphin now has a firm idea where to drill at the Yeoval East prospect within its Yeoval project after soil and rock chip sampling returned anomalous copper and gold.

Soil sampling returning top assays of 0.14% copper and 0.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and rock chips of up to 0.28% copper and 0.81g/t gold highlights the abundance of anomalous copper and gold mineralisation at the prospect, providing additional exploration and drill targets.

This is a strong indicator that the underexplored Yeoval East prospect has the potential to expand the existing Yeoval resource of 12.8Mt grading 0.38% copper, 0.14g/t gold, 2.2g/t silver and 120 parts per million (ppm) molybdenum located about 700m to the west.

Additionally, recent exploration by Goldolphin Resources (ASX:GRL) has identified an area about 600m long and 200m wide with greater than 150ppm copper in soil that is associated with variably altered and sheared granodiorite host rock, similar to the host of the Yeoval resource.

“The Yeoval East Prospect along with nearby Cyclops and Goodrich Prospects are compelling copper and gold targets which GRL will follow-up this year,” managing director Jeneta Owens said.

“The recent surface sample results from the Yeoval East Prospect are testament to the effectiveness of grassroots exploration methods, such as geological mapping, to identify copper and gold mineralisation in a terrain that has been explored previously.

“Drill target planning is currently underway. When this is finalised, we intend to mobilise a rig to site and follow up these targets to further expand our resource footprint in the Lachlan Fold Belt.”

Yeoval East

Yeoval East is located about 2km north of rural town of Yeoval where shallow drilling and a small surface sampling program undertaken in the 1990s had identified copper and gold mineralisation, near the recently identified areas of interest, no systematic exploration was carried out to follow-up on the results.

Godolphin noted that of the six shallow reverse circulation holes drilled at the prospect in 1994 by previous explorers, hole RC94Y42 reported a best intersection of 21m grading 0.34% copper and 0.04g/t gold.

However, this was drilled in the opposite direction from the recently identified zone of anomalous copper in soil and rock chips.

Mineralisation is associated with zones of pervasive and vein-related epidote-sericite-chlorite-albite-quartz alteration of the Naringla Granodiorite host rock while secondary copper mineralisation and sulphides in outcropping rocks was mapped by GRL.

Recent geological mapping identified multiple outcrops displaying favourable structural ground preparation while the company’s high resolution ground magnetic data also highlighted a number of northwest trending linear demagnetised structures which are interpreted to be faults.

This is suggestive of a dilational zone where mineralised fluids have focused during a period of crustal movement. Northwest structural features are found at nearby operating mines.

Similar structural orientations exist across the Lachlan Fold Belt and are considered important for the emplacement of significant mineral deposits.

This article was developed in collaboration with Godolphin 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.

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