Miramar is all fired-up to launch its EIS co-funded diamond drilling at its Whaleshark project in Western Australia’s Ashburton region to test for IOCG mineralisation.

The company has received heritage approval and has appointed a drilling contractor for the program, for which the State Government is contributing half of the direct drilling costs to a cap of $180,000 under its Exploration Incentive Scheme.

Drilling of coincident gravity and air core copper anomalies in the ‘neck’ of the Whaleshark granite for iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) mineralisation is expected to begin at the end of the month.

Since acquiring Whaleshark in early 2021, Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) has defined high-priority bedrock IOCG targets through a combination of mobile metal ion surface geochemical anomalism, a gravity anomaly in the “neck” of the granite crosscut by a northwest-trending structure and strongly elevated copper, cobalt, gold and silver results in “interface” aircore drilling.

The company has also noted rare earth element anomalism consistent with published data from the Prominent Hill IOCG deposit in South Australia, which having reliably produced one of the highest grades of copper concentrate consistently for the past years, highlights why IOCG deposits are so sought after.

Another notable example is BHP’s Olympic Dam, one of the world’s largest copper, uranium and gold deposits.

“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 can be very large, and potentially very valuable, meaning exploration success at Whaleshark would have a very significant positive impact on our Company’s valuation.

“We are therefore very excited to commence diamond drilling at Whaleshark in the near future.”

 

New tenement

Meanwhile, Miramar has been granted a new tenement at its Dooley Downs project in WA’s Gascoyne region.

E09/2647 covers the contact between the older Edmund Basin and younger Collier Basin.

It has the potential to host nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation associated with Proterozoic dolerite sills along with sediment-hosted copper mineralisation within the Edmund Basin, evident by elevated results in historical rock chip and soil samples.

The company will now compile all previous exploration data before planning the first fieldwork.

Additionally, it plans to carry out sampling at the Mt Vernon nickel-copper-PGE once diamond drilling at Whaleshark is completed.

 

 

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.

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