Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) upgrades Chain Pool drill targets with auger results
Miramar Resources has received all results from the auger drilling program completed at the Joy Helen copper, lead and silver prospect within its 100% owned Chain Pool Project in Western Australia's Gascoyne region.
The company said the results, together with recently completed gravity survey data, have upgraded proposed bedrock drill targets and identified a new target area for follow up exploration.
Highlights
Auger drilling returned results of up to 0.1% Cu and 0.8% Pb at Joy Helen.
A total of 116 auger holes were completed across 10 east to west traverses.
Hole CPA058 returned 3m @ 0.1% Cu and 0.84% Pb, adjacent to a residual gravity anomaly.
The company identified a large alteration halo northeast and outboard of the high grade mineralisation.
A new exploration target has been identified approximately 4km northwest of Joy Helen.
Miramar Managing Director Marion Bush said the auger drilling campaign was a cost effective and efficient way to further test the potential scale of the mineralisation and alteration outside the main workings at Joy Helen.
“These new results suggest that the opportunity at Chain Pool could be much larger than indicated by the historic Joy Helen workings.”
The auger drilling program was completed during May to test beneath soil copper, lead and silver anomalies and alteration halos.
Miramar completed 116 holes with depths ranging from 1m to 11m, averaging 4m, with samples collected at 1m intervals and analysed for gold together with a multi element suite comprising SEDEX target elements and pathfinder elements.
Miramar reported coincident copper and lead anomalism in holes CPA040 and CPA058 adjacent to residual gravity anomalies outlined by the recent detailed gravity survey.
The company also reported elevated copper and lead values adjacent to the most significant residual gravity anomaly located west of the historic Joy Helen workings.
An area of hard silicified dolomite lies directly over this gravity anomaly, and the company plans to test the target with RC and or diamond drilling because it was impenetrable by shallow auger drilling.
The company said plotting the recognised SEDEX metal index and alteration index outlined a large alteration halo northeast and outboard of the high grade mineralisation, which the company said could be a useful vector to helping identify additional high grade mineralisation.
Miramar also reported that several holes intersected a weathered dolerite dyke that produced anomalous copper and titanium values, which the company believes are related to relative enrichment through the weathering process and not to primary mineralisation.
Joy Helen is located within Miramar's 100% owned Chain Pool Project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia and contains high grade copper, lead and silver mineralisation.
The company says the prospect has similarities to Sedimentary Exhalative (SEDEX) deposits in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Technical Director Allan Kelly said Joy Helen is hosted in carbonate rocks located adjacent to a major growth fault at the edge of the Edmund Basin with the same zoned carbonate alteration halo, with increasing base metal values towards the proximal siderite zone, as seen in the typical SEDEX model.
The company is planning further work at Joy Helen, including a passive seismic HVSR survey to further aid in mapping the basement topography and faulting, followed by the first dedicated bedrock drilling campaign.
At the newly identified target approximately 4km northwest of Joy Helen, the company plans reconnaissance rock chip and soil sampling and passive seismic traverses, to be followed by a gravity survey.