White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) Reports Bornite Hills Copper Results Ahead of 2027 Drilling
White Cliff Minerals has reported maiden drilling results from Bornite Hills at its Rae Copper Project, intersecting copper mineralisation more than 60m below a historic surface trench that returned 3.66m at 46.99% copper.
Follow up drilling is planned for early 2027, with geophysical data to be integrated into targeting along the prospect’s parallel structures.
Highlights
BNH26001A returned 15.0m at 1.62% copper from 57.0m, including 3.5m at 4.14% copper from 64m.
BNH26003 returned 11.5m at 2.00% copper from 75.5m, including 1.0m at 10.16% copper from 82.5m.
The copper system remains open along a 1.3km host structure adjacent to the Herb Dixon Fault.
Reported drill intersections represent drilled widths rather than true widths.
Bornite Hills lies immediately west of the Herb Dixon Fault Zone, a major structure trending north to south that is known to host copper mineralisation.
Previous drilling at the fault zone returned 3.5m at 7.2% copper within 12m at 2.45% copper from 287m in STK25001.
Within the Bornite Hills target structure, quartz carbonate copper sulphide veins and breccias trend north northwest to south southeast.
The structure can be traced as a prominent topographic low for more than 1,300m, joining the Herb Dixon Fault Zone at its southern end.
White Cliff Managing Director Troy Whittaker outlined the next phase of work:
“The next phase of targeting will focus on the geometry of the system, its highest-grade zones and the surrounding parallel structures.”
The individual assay results included 0.56m at 16.3% copper from 82.94m in BNH26003 and 0.70m at 8.69% copper from 66.00m in BNH26001A.
Further drilling is required to understand the controls on the highest grade trends, while the company reports that the host structure’s orientation is currently poorly constrained and inferred to dip westwards.
The programme also recorded holes that did not intersect the target structure or returned lower grades.
BNH26001 was drilled too steeply and did not enter the structure, while BNH26001A was drilled with a shallower dip angle and confirmed subsurface mineralisation.
BNH26002 was abandoned at 15m, while BNH26002A, drilled more than 700m south southeast, intersected a minor mineralised structure and returned 1.00m at 0.12% copper from 263.00m.
Beyond the initial drilling, ground based geophysics is being assessed for inclusion in the 2027 exploration season.
The company describes massive to semi massive bornite within a silicified host structure, with sulphide poor basalts outside it providing electromagnetic contrast for targeting massive sulphides.
Across Rae, an airborne magnetic, gravity and radiometric survey was commissioned to cover the contact between the Rae Group and Husky Creek Formation over 70km of strike.
Coverage extends to Thor and Rocket, where 2024 surface rock sampling identified high grade vein and breccia systems, with the new dataset intended to refine targets and guide future drilling.
Drilling continues across the Danvers 1 northeastern trend and Danvers 2/3 discovery areas.
The company expects current drilling to support geological modelling, the definition of an Exploration Target and progression towards a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate, while targets generated through geological and geophysical data integration will feed into the 2027 drilling pipeline.