Metalicity’s Mt Surprise lithium project appears well-named with a review of historical rock chip sampling identifying significant high-grade copper mineralisation at surface.
While the company had recently secured the Queensland project for its lithium prospectivity, analysis of 161 historical rock chip samples returned several samples with significant copper grades including a top assay of 27.5% copper while others contained anomalous grades of gold (1.32g/t) and other base metals (18.8% lead).
Collectively, these samples indicate at least 5km strike of potential mineralisation on a north-south trending system.
While Metalicity (ASX:MCT) remains focused on the lithium potential of the project, the discovery of copper and other elements certainly comes as a welcome surprise.
“We secured the Mt Surprise Project due to the significant lithium potential demonstrated by rock chips up to 3.55% lithium,” managing director Justin Barton said.
“On the back of this information we are collating, it is clear that the opportunity at Mt Surprise is now much larger than what we thought it could be.
“Rock chips up to 27.5% copper are extremely high grade and we plan to follow up immediately.
“While lithium is our primary focus, it’s a great position to be in to know The Project is also prospective for copper, gold and other base metals.”
The company expects to be on site in about two weeks to push forward work programs at Mt Surprise where it will carry out further mapping along with target rock chip and soil sampling.
Mt Surprise prospectivity
The sparsely explored Mt Surprise project is located about 165km from Cairns and 57km northeast of its namesake town and was picked up due in part to a historical rock chip sample which returned 3.55% lithium oxide, 125 parts per million tantalum, 0.25% caesium and 1.26% rubidium.
Project geology is also favourable for lithium mineralisation with granites in the area being clearly fertile for the production of highly sought-after lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites.
It is also considered prospective for other deposit styles, such as rhyolite-hosted deposits, given the presence of similar host rocks within a volcanic caldera setting, which similar to Ioneer’s (ASX:INR) Rhyolite Ridge lithium deposit in the US.
This is without considering the prospectivity for other minerals with the company noting that the high-grade copper results were collected from several locations and appears to occur as malachite-azurite-fluorite mineralisation within quartz-stockworked or vein contacts between a rhyolite dyke and early Silurian granite of the Blackman Gap Complex.
Many of these veins were exposed in historical costeans across a 1km to 1.5km long, north-south trending, quartz-fluorite vein system hosted by altered and greisenised granites.
Historical gold samples were collected from epithermal quartz veins or structures hosted within granites from a number of locations across the tenement.
Upcoming activity
As part of its initial field review to collect information and explore for LCT-bearing pegmatites, Metalicity will also take the opportunity to explore for base metals, including copper and base metals as well as gold mineralisation occurrences and prospectivity identified from the desktop historical review.
Information collated from the desktop review will also assist in accelerating exploration targets for further investigation over a large tenement area.
The company expects to start the field review, which includes expanded detailed mapping and collection of rock chip samples targeting new pegmatites, potential lithium mineralisation, base metals and gold in mid to late September 2022.
This article was developed in collaboration with Metalicity, 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.