New World extensional drilling continues to unlock riches at Antler

Resource extension drilling has returned more high-grade intersections at the Main Shoot within New World’s Antler copper deposit. And there’s still no end in sight.

An 18.2m intersection grading 2% copper, 3.4% zinc, 0.9% lead, 30.8 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.2g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 987.8m in ANT94AW1 – the deepest hole drilled to date – has extended mineralisation at the Main Shoot by a further 80m.

While mineralisation in the Main Shoot at the Arizona project has now been demonstrated to extend continuously more than 900m down-dip from surface, New World Resources (ASX:NWC) has yet to reach the bottom for this exciting resource.

Nor is the Main Shoot the only area where the company has been extending mineralisation at depth.

Very high-grade assays have also been returned from two new holes that intersected mineralisation more than 250m down-dip from the previous deepest drilling at the South Shoot, taking its down-dip extent to more than 700m.

This drilling returned results such as 6.8m at 3.2% copper, 10.6% zinc, 1.6% lead, 55.6g/t silver and 0.2g/t gold from 794m in ANT91W2 and two intersections of 10m at 4.87g/t gold from 798m and 3m at 3.9% copper, 8.2% zinc, 1.5% lead, 65.3g/t silver and 0.33g/t gold from 842.4m in ANT91W1.

All this is hugely exciting for the company given that its recent Scoping Study has already outlined the strong economics – try an NPV and IRR of US$524.9m and 42% respectively on for size – for an underground operation mining 600m to 700m below surface at Antler.

The deeper mineralisation simply means potential for New World to recover more resources.

Resource upgrade on the cards

Speaking of resource upgrades, the company is likely to be pleasantly surprised when it updates the Antler resource estimate in the coming months thanks to the continued extension of mineralisation at the Main and South shoots along with the intersection of high-grade mineralisation between the two zones.

“We are very pleased that we continue to find a lot more mineralisation during our ongoing exploration drilling at Antler. And just as pleasing is that the grades continue to be very high,” managing director Mike Haynes said.

He added that extending the depth extent of both shoots is expected to have a material impact on the project’s resources.

“The potential value of discovering additional mineralisation was clearly demonstrated when we published the results of our Scoping Study earlier this week,” Haynes noted.

“Delivering further growth in the mineral resource base therefore continues to be a very high-priority for the company, as it can only make the project’s potential economics look even more attractive.”

More to come

While the results are certainly encouraging, New World is by no means done with its efforts to grow the Antler resource, which currently stands at 7.7Mt at 2.2% copper, 5.3% zinc, 0.9% lead, 28.8g/t silver and 0.18g/t gold.

Assays are pending for a further 11 completed holes while resource expansion drilling is continuing with three diamond core rigs operating at the project.

Once most of the pending assays are returned, the company will move to update the resource.

This article was developed in collaboration with New World 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.