Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including at Antipa Minerals’ Minyari Dome project in Western Australia, where it cored three key gold-copper intercepts in a single hole that jagged peak assays of 0.55 metres at 90.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 16.9 per cent copper and 43.9g/t silver.
Battery Age Minerals had interesting hits at its Falcon Lake lithium project in Ontario, Canada, where it jagged thick high-grade lithium intercepts in diamond drilling, and Centaurus Metals intercepted high-grade copper at its Nelore prospect in northern Brazil.
Antipa Minerals
Minyari Dome, Paterson province, WA.
Copper-gold project
Antipa Minerals cored three prime intercepts in a single diamond hole at its Minyari Dome project in WA’s remarkable Paterson province, bringing to light 86m at 1.7g/t gold from 121m, 5.3m at 5.4g/t gold from 296m and 51m at 2.7g/t gold from 396m. The hole hit a peak assay of 0.55m at 90.7g/t gold and 16.9pc copper in the last deep run.
The three most successful broad runs tell only part of the story and don’t do the hole justice. Its first 86m prime intercept also includes a sub-intercept of 28m at 4g/t gold, 1pc copper, 3g/t silver and 0.1pc cobalt from 121m.
Dial up the focus and the 28m intercept includes 1m at 10.1g/t gold, 4.1pc copper, 11.2g/t silver and 0.17pc cobalt from 124m and 2m at 6.1g/t gold, 1.9pc copper, 5.1g/t silver and 0.16pc cobalt from 132m.
The 28m run also includes a further 1m hit at 60.8 g/t gold, 3.6pc copper, 20.7g/t silver and 0.14pc cobalt from 147m and a second 1m interval going 6.1g/t gold, 4.3pc copper and 10.4g/t silver from 147m.
The primary 86m run also includes a separate 1m at 13.1g/t gold, 0.37pc copper and 2.7g/t silver from 164m.
The second prime intercept comprises 5.3m at 5.4g/t gold and 0.51pc copper from 296m and includes 1m at 21.3g/t gold, 2.1pc copper and 2.9g/t silver from 298m.
A more significant third prime intercept cored 51m at 2.7g/t gold, 0.39pc copper and 1g/t silver from 396m, including 1m at 8.3g/t gold from 396m and a separate 22m at 4.9g/t gold, 0.75pc copper and 2.1g/t silver from 418m.
In turn, that 22m includes 1m at 14.4g/t gold, 0.31pc copper, 0.8g/t silver and 0.31pc cobalt from 418m, 1m at 2.6g/t gold, 2.1pc copper and 3.2g/t silver from 428m and a final 0.55m at 90.7g/t gold, 16.9pc copper and 43.9g/t silver and 0.24pc cobalt from 437.35m.
The assays are among the recently returned results from a third batch of 36 holes in Antipa’s phase two diamond drilling program progressed last year at five of the multiple zones in the Minyari Dome project.
The headline hole is one of three diamond drillholes put into the main Minyari deposit for resource definition and metallurgical sample collection to support a planned pre-feasibility study. All three holes reveal multiple thick, high-grade gold-copper intercepts.
The 36 holes consist of 31 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 4680m and five diamond core holes for a further 988m at Minyari Dome, which is surrounded by other world-class deposits in WA’s highly prospective Paterson province.
These include Greatland’s Havieron 7 million ounces gold, 275 kilotonne (Kt) copper deposit and its 600,000 ounces gold and 25Kt copper Telfer operation, south of the Minyari Dome project.
North of Minyari Some, this remarkably productive region also includes Antipa’s Calibre 2.5m ounces gold, 115Kt copper and 1.6m ounce silver deposit and the company’s Magnum 339,000 ounces gold, 58Kt copper and 511,000 ounce silver deposit.
Antipa’s Minyari Dome project itself is no recluse in this august arena, with its combined resource of 47.6m tonnes for 2.3m ounces of gold, 84Kt copper, 661,000 ounces of silver and 13Kt of cobalt.
The drilling results from the overall program confirm the discovery of additional new zones of near-surface, high-grade gold and copper at Minaryi Dome’s GEO-01 main zone and at the nearby Fiama target, while also revealing significant gold-copper-silver-cobalt intersections in its main deposit.
Antipa plans to deliver an updated resource estimate for the Minyari Dome project, which includes last year’s phase two drilling results, in the first quarter of the year.
Battery Age Minerals
Falcon Lake lithium project, Ontario, Canada
Hit: 54.1m at a grade of 1.74pc lithium oxide from 100.85m
Battery Age Minerals jagged thick high-grade lithium intercepts from diamond drilling at its Falcon Lake lithium project, including a best result of 54.1m at 1.74pc lithium oxide from 100.85m.
A second hole off the same drill pad reported 55.95m assaying 1.47pc lithium oxide from 222.2m.
The results were well-supported by the third and fourth best intercepts, which delivered 43m going 1.62pc lithium oxide from 62.2m and 22.55m at 1.74pc lithium oxide from 39.3m down-hole.
The four holes were drilled as pairs off two pads, with the first and second pairs splayed at about 40 degrees and 34 degrees respectively, in plan.
The best two holes were also inclined in section at about 40 degrees and 58 degrees to intercept the thicker, eastern part of the two branches of the Little Lake pegmatite at about 80m and 200m vertically below surface.
The numbers are the company’s best lithium drilling results to date and the mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth.
With respectable grades, good thicknesses and long persistent strikes of both arms of the Little Lake pegmatite for at least 500m – which are open at depth and along strike to the south – the Falcon Lake lithium project appears to hold significant exploration upside.
Fifteen holes were put into the Little Lake pegmatite last year, with significant mineralisation being identified in 14 of them.
Only five of the company’s 30 high-priority targets defined from fieldwork have been tested by drilling, leaving significant and mostly virgin potential for further discoveries across the project area.
With its initial drilling already proving the existence of lithium-rich spodumene-bearing pegmatites and with other targets identified by geophysical and geochemical surface sampling, Battery Age sees strong potential to increase the number of lithium-hosting targets.
The third best hole with its 43m intercept is the most southerly hole drilled to date and with the Little Lake target being open to the south and to depth, it will stay on the company’s list of strong prospects to be revisited in a later campaign.
Battery Age’s chief executive officer Nigel Broomham said the project’s significant southern extensions, combined with its thick, high-grade intercepts at depth, underscore the project’s enormous growth potential.
With only a fraction of the known targets tested so far, management is confident its systematic exploration and future drilling will uncover more possibilities.
Centaurus Metals
Boi Novo, Nelore prospect, Carajás Mineral province, northern Brazil
Hit: 5.5m at 8.38 per cent copper and 0.18ppm gold from 147m, including 2m at 22.03pc copper and 0.50ppm gold from 150.5m.
Centaurus Metals jagged a big hit this week from the last of the diamond holes put into its Nelore prospect at the end of last year.
The drilling campaign intercepted chalcopyrite-rich semi-massive sulphidic zones, confirming the down-plunge continuity of the shallow high-grade breccia zone identified previously at the prospect.
The company’s top result in the headline hole – 5.5m at 8.38pc copper and 0.18 parts per million (ppm) gold from 147m – was cored 300m along strike to the east of the project’s previous best intercept of 24.2m at 0.76pc copper. The headline hole included 22.03pc copper and 0.5ppm gold from 150.5m.
The 22.03pc copper hit is notable given a 34.5pc copper grade is the maximum possible chalcopyrite, given its molecular structure.
The company has now received all outstanding assay results for the 27 drill holes it completed in 2024.
The holes continue to show strong results and have intersected more zones of thick disseminated mineralisation, further extending the shallow breccia-hosted high-grade copper mineralisation.
The breccia zone at Nelore includes an intercept in one hole targeting a downhole electromagnetic conductor plate 50m down-dip from the headline hole.
It intersected a 35.5m thick zone of pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite breccia mineralisation grading 0.66pc copper and 0.01ppm gold from 167.5m. This included a 5.9m hit going 1.93pc copper and 0.03ppm gold from 167.5m and 3.3m at 1.37pc copper and 0.02ppm gold from 199.7m.
A downhole electromagnetic survey of the hole also generated other new untested conductor plates extending about 100m below current drilling.
A third hole jagged 13m at 0.60pc copper from 50.5m, including 5.3m at 1.01pc copper from 55.7m, while a fourth hole gave up 11.9m at 0.86pc copper from 57.2m.
The strike of the breccia pipe in the Nelore prospect is currently 300m. It remains open along strike and down-dip and features multiple, yet-to-be-tested down hole structurally controlled targets, identified via electromagnetic and, fixed loop electro-magnetic surveys.
Centaurus’ drilling program is also intercepting broad zones of disseminated copper-gold mineralisation throughout the prospect, with 38.5m at 0.26pc copper and 0.05ppm gold from 209.5m in a fifth hole, including 7.0m running 0.41pc copper and 0.08ppm gold from 241.0m.
A sixth hole intercepted 29.9m at 0.21pc copper and 0.05ppm gold from 157.1m.
The pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite breccia zones identified at Nelore lie next to an outcropping late-stage medium-coarse grained granitic dyke. The 100m-thick dyke is perpendicular to the dominant east-west Parauapebas mafic volcanic and Carajás iron formation sequence hosting the broadly disseminated sulphide zones.
The granite and sulphide breccia mineralisation plunges to the east-southeast and the breccia mineralisation is interpreted to be structurally-controlled remobilisation of iron (pyrrhotite) and copper (chalcopyrite) sulphides along a secondary structure as a result of structural reactivation via the granitic dyke emplacement.
Boi Novo is strategically located about 30 kilometres from Parauapebas, which is Carajás’ regional centre. It is also about 35km from copper giant Vale’s copper-gold concentrate load-out facility at Parauapebas and less than 20km from BHP’s Antas Norte copper flotation plant.
The Nelore prospect sits in the centre of Centaurus’ Boi Novo project on the northern limits of the Estrela Granite belt and is in contact with the banded iron formation and meta-mafic rocks of the Grão Pará Group.
The 3.5km-long Nelore magnetic anomaly coincides with a discontinuous more than 500ppm soil copper anomaly, with discrete zones up to 500m of strike running at least a continuous 1000ppm copper.
Preliminary drill targets at Nelore include IP chargeability anomalies near or coincident with magnetic anomalies and soil copper anomalies, as well as a set of east/northeast trending regional structures that cross-cut the sequence and could be possible mineralisation conduits or foci.
The disseminated mineralisation found at Nelore is chalcopyrite-dominant and appears to have a favourable copper-gold relationship similar to those seen in iron oxide-copper gold deposits in the Carajás region.
Centaurus’ Metals managing director Darren Gordon said the high-grade results delivered from drilling late last year had further upgraded the Boi Novo project’s potential as a significant emerging copper-gold discovery.
Although the pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite content is variable across the prospect, Gordon said the company is excited to see zones of exceptionally high-grade mineralisation that reinforces the significant potential of the under-explored project.
Additional drilling is planned to test the strike extension of disseminated mineralisation at the Nelore prospect, which remains open along strike and at depth.
Centaurus remains well-funded to complete the extended drill program in parallel with its ongoing engineering, pre-development and financing activities for its flagship Jaguar nickel sulphide project.
The 138.2 million-tonne Jaguar project, with its 0.87pc nickel grade, is also in the Carajás mineral province in the Brazilian state of Pará, about 150km west of Boi Novo.
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