Zenith hopes to make Sulphide City a copper Metropolis

‘Sulphide City’ is showing plenty of upside potential for base metals explorer Zenith Minerals, with new drilling indicating it is likely to host more copper tonnes and higher grades than previously defined.

Results from three diamond drill holes punched by Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC) into the Sulphide City resource area have returned a couple of +25m intervals at exciting copper grades upwards of 2%, with intervals grading as high as 4%-plus.

The existing Sulphide City resource, part of the Develin Creek project in Queensland, contains 2.57Mt @ 1.76% copper, 2.01% zinc, 0.24g/t gold and 9.6g/t silver (2.62% CuEq), so those sorts of grades are sure to pique interest.

Best results included:

29m at 2.3% copper, 1.2% zinc, 0.3g/t gold and 4.2g/t silver including 12.3m at 4.2% Cu, 2.5% Zn, 0.6 g/t Au and 7.3 g/t Ag, and;
34m at 2.0%Cu, 1.5%Zn, 0.2g/tAu and 4.9g/tAg containing 10m at 3.9% Cu, 0.4% Zn, 0.3 g/t Au & 6.9 g/t Au.

More drilling is required to firm up the theory, but Zenith believes these results could point to a grade bonus in the higher-grade portions of the inferred Sulphide City resource.

The same drill holes found separate high-grade zones outside the deposit’s historic resources, including 4m at 4.7%Cu, 6.1%Zn,1.2g/tAu and 9.8g/tAg, and 10m at 1.8%Cu, 4.2%Zn, 0.2g/t Au & 5.4g/t Ag.

Next steps

A new drill program is being put together to target these high grade copper zones in a bid to grow the Sulphide City resource at Develin Creek, a VMS-style project believed to have geological similarities to Sandfire Resources’ celebrated DeGrussa copper-gold mine.

“The purpose of this short program was to validate mineralisation encompassed within the pre- existing resource at Sulphide City,” Zenith chairman Peter Bird said.

“This has been achieved but given the strong and much higher grades in holes ZDCDD002 & ZDCDD003 there is potential to expand upon what is already defined.

“More drilling and the recent geophysical targeting will both be valuable contributors to the process.”

Zenith working hard on multiple fronts

Who could forget that while Zenith is progressing its own exploration efforts at Develin Creek, it has exposure as well to one of the most exciting zinc discoveries in Australia in years via its 25% share of Rumble Resources’ Earaheedy project.

It also recently announced promising gold exploration results from its Split Rocks project in WA, where it has generated high quality targets across ~18km of strike, and the Red Mountain project in Queensland which is not far from Evolution Mining’s Mount Rawdon gold mine.

Zenith recently divested its Flanagans copper-gold asset for $450,000 in cash and shares to IPO hopeful Bindi Metals, allowing the explorer to zero in on its core projects.

At Develin Creek that means not just identifying extensions to Sulphide City, but drilling down on a whole heap of prospective targets across 50km of strike.

Its upcoming major drilling program is slated to include 16 holes to infill Sulphide City along with 17 holes targeting eight priority targets, four of them around the existing resource and four promising regional prospects at Snook (30km south) and Wilsons (50km south).

This article was developed in collaboration with Zenith Minerals, 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.