A very small area centred ~60 km south-east of Olary has been explored for possible economic buried Late Proterozoic sediment-hosted or volcanic hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) Cu (-Co) mineralisation. Previous exploration conducted by Longreach...
A very small area centred ~60 km south-east of Olary has been explored for possible economic buried Late Proterozoic sediment-hosted or volcanic hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) Cu (-Co) mineralisation. Previous exploration conducted by Longreach Metals in the early 1970s had discovered significant low grade oxide copper plus silver mineralisation at the Mutooroo Ridge prospect, located 6 km south of Mutooroo Homestead. The lode is narrow and steeply dipping to the NW. It had only been sparsely tested by historic RC and diamond drilling, which made a number of sub-economic, <2% Cu copper intercepts. Gold appeared to be absent. During the first licence year, activities comprised: • compilation of historic exploration data for the licence area, and design of an initial exploration programme; • auger soil geochemical sampling designed in part to extend and infill Longreach's previous sampling grid (608 x minus 80 mesh samples collected at 40 m intervals along traverses spaced 120 m to 200 m apart for in-house pXRF analysis, followed by check laboratory assaying of 29 of the samples); and • preliminary ground truthing field inspections of selected locations, which included the collection and laboratory assaying of 6 grab rock chip samples. The soil assay results confirmed previous Longreach anomalies, and defined new anomalous trends in the west and south of EL 6230. The combined surface geochemical datasets enabled Westrock to design a future scout drilling programme. During licence Year 2, the execution at Mutooroo Ridge of a 9 hole, 1650 m RC drilling campaign scheduled for April 2020 was postponed due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Westrock performed infill and extensional mapping of four key target areas within the 4 km long copper-in-soil geochemical anomaly. They are all located in andesitic-dacitic volcanics and volcanogenic sediments of the Adelaidean Boucaut Volcanics, between the basal massive rhyolite unit and overlying Burra Group clastic sediments consisting of siltstone, sandstone and conglomerate. During licence Year 3, in May 2021, 7 angled RC holes with a total penetration of 918 m were drilled to test the four priority geochemical and geological targets. The drilling failed to encounter significant stratabound mineralisation. Numerous narrow low grade intercepts of oxide copper were made, generally of lower tenor than reported historic drillhole intercepts, and some native copper was noted in hole MR2107 at 143 m EOH. It was concluded that the best copper intercept formerly made in the historic Longreach diamond hole M7 is of limited extent, both along strike and at depth. Consequently the decision was made to surrender the licence.
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