Miramar is all set to carry out EIS co-funded diamond drilling at its Whaleshark project in Western Australia’s Ashburton region after completing a heritage survey.

The drill program, which will see the State Government contribute half of the direct drilling costs – including mobilisation charges – under its Exploration Incentive Scheme to a cap of $180,000, will test the coincident gravity and air core copper anomalies in the ‘neck’ of the Whaleshark granite for iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) mineralisation.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) acquired the project as part of its initial public offering in 2020 and has been carrying out exploration to test for its potential to host a large IOCG deposit like Ernest Henry in Queensland’s Mt Isa mining region or Carrapateena in South Australia’s Far North region.

Previous work at Whaleshark has defined high-priority bedrock drill targets which comprise MMI surface geochemical anomalism over a 1.2km by 1.2km area, gravity anomalism crosscut by a northwest-trending structure, and strongly elevated copper, cobalt, gold and silver results in “interface” aircore drilling.

“Since commencing work at Whaleshark in mid-2021, we have defined a robust IOCG target which has been further validated by the recent successful EIS application,” executive chairman Allan Kelly said.

“IOCG deposits are large and potentially very valuable meaning success at Whaleshark would have a significant positive impact on our company.

“We are therefore very excited to be drill testing these highly prospective bedrock targets.”

Discussions are currently underway with several drilling contractors to carry out the drill program in July.

 

Giant potential

IOCG deposits can be massive with high-grade concentrations of copper, gold, and other economic minerals.

BHP’s Olympic Dam – arguably the archetype of giant IOCG mines – ranks amongst the world’s largest copper, uranium and gold deposits in one tidy package.

No wonder then that Miramar is keen to unlock Whaleshark’s secrets as an IOCG discovery could be transformational for the company.

It could also supercharge exploration activities across the wider Gascoyne mineral province.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Miramar 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.

Read MoreCopper

Featured Companies

You might be interested in