Special Report: The innovation investment fund has taken a patient approach at the highly prospective copper-gold-rare earths project, and pre-drilling construction is now underway.

For a long time, experts have been divided on what caused the magnetic properties at Behemoth. Some have suggested it was caused by a meteorite hitting from above, while others attribute it to underground magma intrusions.

Either way, recent geophysical surveys have identified a number of underground zones deemed to have high potential for holding buried sulphide.

Now, venture company Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) has put together a highly-skilled drilling team to find out more.

The operation will target prospective zones with several drill holes, “with the objective of striking nickel, copper, gold bearing sulphides or rare earths”, the company said.

Managing director Charles Murphy said the company took a patient approach to make sure it had access to the right equipment to do the job properly.

“We made the decision to wait for confirmation of a particular type of rig that will be best suited to handling the conditions that a potential meteorite impact site could create at Behemoth,” he said.

The project is being carried out in connection with the WA government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme – a competitive process vetted by independent experts with the aim of fostering innovative drilling exploration projects.

The project will be managed by specialist exploration group OMNI GeoX, which is headed up by Peter Langworthy who previously held senior roles with WMC Resources and Jubilee Mines.

And drilling operations will be conducted by DDH1, one of Australia’s leading mineral drilling contractors which has direct experience in large-scale mineral discoveries – most recently including Greatland Gold’s Havieron project in the Paterson.

Having assembled an expert team for the project, Strategic Elements is now awaiting final confirmation of availability for the specialist drilling rig required with drilling expected to commence within the next 3-4 weeks.

In the meantime, construction of the access track and drill pads will begin in the coming days.

>>Learn more about Strategic Elements

“Behemoth is a high risk, high reward project situated in an area that has almost no drilling or known sub-surface geology,” Murphy said.

“It is an unusual project, however the feedback from a range of experts – and the very large-scale anomalies generated from the recent IP geophysical surveys – have provided the momentum to move forward with drilling”

This story was developed in collaboration with Strategic Elements, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.  This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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