The new lode at Liontown is certainly rich in copper. Pic: Getty Images
Sunshine Metals drilling identifies new copper-rich lode at its Liontown project
Mining
share
- Sunshine Metals drilling identifies copper-rich lode at the Liontown project in Queensland
- New Sapindinus Lode is ~35m north of and runs parallel to the Liontown Footwall Lode
- Drilling returned 8m at 2.73% copper, 0.69g/t gold, 1.55% zinc and 24g/t silver from 38m
- Shallow gold and copper intersected at the Liontown Footwall Lode
Special Report: Shallow holes drilled by Sunshine Metals to test for extensions to the gold-rich Liontown Footwall Lode have unearthed a new copper-rich lode adjacent to four historical shafts.
The new Sapindinus Lode is ~35m north of and runs parallel to the Liontown Footwall Lode and can be traced in wide-spaced historical drilling over ~200m of strike, open in all directions.
It is not included in the current resource of 5.45Mt at 12% zinc equivalent, which includes a higher confidence indicated resource of 1.85Mt at 10.9% zinc equivalent.
The Liontown polymetallic project near Charters Towers is part of Sunshine Metals’ (ASX:SHN) broader Ravenswood Consolidated project in a Queensland district that has produced over 20Moz gold and 14Mt of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) ore (copper-gold, zinc-lead).
Recent drilling carried out by the company has focused on the high-grade copper-gold present at the project.
New copper lode
The company’s most recent nine-hole, shallow reverse circulation program identified Sapindinus after returning hits such as 8m grading 2.73% copper, 0.69g/t gold, 1.55% zinc and 24g/t silver from 38m including 3m at 6.96% copper, 0.61g/t gold, 3.95% zinc, 3.77% lead and 60g/t silver from 38m.
This follows on historical drill results such as 5.6m at 2.06% copper, 7.45g/t gold and 2.99% zinc from 99.7m and 2m at 6.57% copper and 2.45g/t gold from 58m.
Drilling also intersected shallow gold and copper in the Liontown Footwall Lode, returning assays such as 9m at 1.52% copper and 0.48g/t gold from 38m and 2m at 1.93g/t gold from 13m.
Separately, a further shallow RC program of four holes to test a previously unrecognised change in lode orientation at the western end of the historical Carrington Lode returned assays such as 2m at 6.81g/t gold.
“The recent RC program has successfully identified a new copper lode, deeper into the footwall of the Liontown resource,” managing director Dr Damien Keys said.
“The Sapindinus Lode has now been intersected by 10 drill holes, historic and current, and extends over ~200m of strike. Sapindinus is open in all directions and is not incorporated into the current Liontown resource.
“Importantly, the program also extended the gold-rich Liontown Footwall Lode to surface and increased the dimensions of the gold-rich zone to >300m by 140m.
“The program also confirmed a change in orientation to the western end of the gold-rich Carrington Lode with 2m at 6.58g/t Au (24LTRC023) and provides a target for follow up drilling and Resource extension.”
Other drilling
SHN currently expects to receive in early June, assays from a three-hole diamond drill program totalling 1,091.43m which targeted high-grade extensions of the gold-rich Footwall Lode into the ~400m long Gap Zone.
Previous drilling has confirmed high-grade gold – including a 17m at 22.1g/t gold intersection – in the 1.6km long Liontown Footwall Lode proximal to interpreted feeder fault zones.
Sunshine Metals has also started down-hole electromagnetic work to refine copper-gold rich drill targets.
This article was developed in collaboration with Sunshine Metals, 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.
