Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) secures EIS support for Whaleshark drilling
May 1, 2026Miramar Resources has secured co funding of up to $180,000 under the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme to support drilling at its 100% owned Whaleshark copper gold project in the Ashburton region of Western Australia, with the program focused on testing multiple high priority targets beneath shallow basin cover.
Highlights
- EIS co funding up to $180,000 for drill testing at Whaleshark
- Multiple magnetic and gravity anomalies identified beneath shallow basin cover
- Targets defined through Magnetisation Vector Inversion modelling completed in 2025
- Diamond drilling in 2023 intersected chalcopyrite in two holes
- Project located approximately 40km east of Onslow
The Whaleshark project is located approximately 40km east of Onslow and contains Proterozoic banded iron formation, metasediments and a granodiorite pluton beneath approximately 100m of later Cretaceous basin sediments.
Aircore drilling to basement in 2022 intersected geochemical anomalism and alteration suggestive of IOCG mineralisation, while EIS co funded diamond drilling completed in 2023 intersected chalcopyrite in two holes, including within an iron rich north west trending structure cross cutting the granodiorite.
Magnetisation Vector Inversion modelling carried out in 2025 identified several new targets with overlapping gravity and magnetic anomalies, described as a key signature of many large Iron Oxide Copper Gold deposits.
Miramar Resources Managing Director Marion Bush said the company can receive up to $180,000 towards drill testing these targets and outlined the geological setting at Whaleshark.
“We are thrilled to receive EIS co funding for our Whaleshark copper gold project and grateful to the WA Government for supporting this program. A key advantage of exploration at Whaleshark is that the prospective basement rocks are much shallower than in other IOCG provinces, such as the Stuart Shelf in South Australia, and we are now refining and prioritising targets prior to drill testing. We have strongly anomalous copper, gold and other IOCG pathfinders, IOCG style alteration and copper sulphide mineralisation associated with iron rich rocks at Whaleshark, so we are very keen to drill our new targets.”
The company is also progressing work across its broader project portfolio, with a resource geologist reviewing all drilling data from the Gidji JV Gold Project to determine whether one or more shallow JORC compliant gold resources can be estimated.
In addition, infill drilling is planned at the Highway and Powerline prospects and initial drilling campaigns are planned at the Claypan and Lake targets following completion of heritage surveys where applicable.
At the Chain Pool project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, the company is preparing for an auger drilling campaign following sampling that outlined high grade sedimentary exhalative style copper, lead and silver mineralisation, along with extensive alteration, at the Joy Helen prospect.
This will be the first drilling conducted at the project since 1964 and is designed to test for covered sedimentary exhalative style mineralisation related to alteration halos outlined in recent soil sampling.
The Whaleshark project is located in a region with existing infrastructure including the Northwest Coastal Highway, the Dampier Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline, port facilities at Onslow, Mardie and Cape Preston, and operating iron mining and processing operations, along with proposed green energy projects.
Field personnel were scheduled to mobilise to site after the Easter long weekend, however the trip was postponed due to Tropical Cyclone Narelle, with the programme rescheduled for May.
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