The deepest and thickest drill hit to date from the Antler copper project has left little doubt New World Resources’ recent maiden resource is just the tip of a large iceberg.
New World Resources (ASX:NWC) delivered a maiden high grade resource of 7.7Mt at 3.9% copper equivalent at the Arizona deposit earlier this month with 74% in the high indicated category, but already has an exploration target to extend it to 10Mt to 12Mt grading 3%-4% copper equivalent.
It had some good news on that front today. ANT70, the deepest hole ever drilled at Antler, struck a rich cocktail of base and precious metals from 575m below surface, 60m down-dip of its previous deepest hole and proving the down-dip extent of the outcropping Antler deposit is more than 680m deep.
New World struck some 43m of copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold mineralisation in ANT70, including:
- 12.7m at 0.6% Cu, 1.7% Zn, 1.2% Pb, 56.3g/t Ag and 1.24g/t Au from 869m (12.7m at 2% CuEq).
- 25.5m at 1.8% Cu, 1.8% Zn, 1.0% Pb, 42.9g/t Ag and 0.46g/t Au from 885m (25.4m at 2.6% CuEq); and,
- 5.3m at 1.2% Cu, 4.0% Zn, 0.3% Pb, 11.6g/t Ag and 0.13g/t Au from 914.6m (5.3m at 2.4% CuEq).
The results bolster NWC’s confidence that it will be able to add tonnes at depth beneath the maiden JORC resource, with mineralisation open at depth over Antler’s entire 500m strike length.
“The standout assay results from ANT70 provide further strong evidence confirming what we have been interpreting for quite a while – that the Antler Deposit is improving with depth,” NWC managing director Mike Haynes said.
“Intersecting the thickest mineralisation ever reported, some 60m down-dip from our previous deepest hole, is a fantastic achievement by our US-based team.
“These results are expected to add more tonnes to an already very impressive maiden JORC Resource at Antler – hence the economics of developing the project are likely to be even better.”
Thicker intersects show potential to add tonnes
Previously the deepest intercepts at Antler were located in hole ANT53, reported to the market back in May.
That contained:
- 14.3m at 2.3% Cu, 6.8% Zn, 0.3% Pb, 22.4g/t Ag and 0.28g/t Au from 614m (14.3m @ 3.8% CuEq); and,
- 5m at 2.2% Cu, 2.9% Zn, 0.1% Pb, 10.8g/t Ag and 0.27g/t Au from 639.3m (5m at 2.7% CuEq).
That the new intercepts are an order of magnitude thicker (43.3m over a 50.6m interval) shows Antler is likely to increase substantially in tonnages in this area once the new results are incorporated into a resource estimate.
Assays have also been returned for holes drilled to test geophysical anomalies at the southern end of the Antler deposit, hitting narrow but high grade mineralised pockets of 1.5m at 1.0% Cu, 12.9% Zn, 1.6% Pb, 25.3g/t Ag and 0.09g/t Au from 418.81m (1.5m at 5.2% CuEq) in ANT71, and 0.9m at 1.5% Cu, 9.1% Zn, 1.8% Pb, 26.5g/t Ag and 0.06g/t Au from 415.96m (0.9m @ 4.4% CuEq) in ANT72.
Those results were encouraging given both holes deviated from their planned trajectory.
Further drilling is continuing to test for thicker intervals of the high-grade mineralisation associated with the sizeable CSAMT geophysics anomaly reported in April.
With three rigs still onsite drilling to extend Antler’s resource base, long wait times at assay labs have led to delays reporting results, with 17 holes still to be reported.
However, the company says the mineralisation is readily identifiable in drill core, meaning it can plan new phases of drilling without assay results on hand.
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.