DiscovEx Resources’ joint venture (JV) partner, Carnaby Resources, continues to rack up high-grade copper hits at the duo’s Burke & Wills discovery near Mt Isa in Queensland, pulling up 12m averaging 2.4 per cent copper and 0.4 grams per tonne gold from 126m.
Preliminary portable XRF analysis on an additional hole drilled 70m north along strike, highlights a 5m run coming in at 1.5 per cent copper from 102m. While the results are an initial approximation, early indicators suggest DiscovEx, through its JV partner, has latched onto a significant copper lode extending over a strike length of 260m.
Drilling continues with results set to feed into a maiden mineral resource estimate for Carnaby’s Greater Duchess project slated for the third quarter of this year.
The latest results follow on from a suite of impressive hits, headlined by a 6m parcel grading a sky-high 6.7 per cent copper and 1.2 g/t gold from 77m. Notably, the 6m interval housed an even higher-grade 4m section going 9.7 per cent copper and 1.7 g/t gold from 77m. Additional hits include a 3m parcel running 5.8 per cent copper from 80m, inside a broader 5m segment going 3.7 per cent from the same depth.
Carnaby previously noted the site’s copper mineralisation boasted a consistent and high-grade profile sitting within a linear fault zone that dips moderately to the east. It says the prospect’s battery and precious metal inventory appears to be open both along strike and at depth.
DiscovEx holds a free-carried 17.5 per cent interest in the Southern Hub tenements – part of Carnaby’s Greater Duchess Project - after cutting a deal with its partner company nearly three years ago. The result not only removed the future burden of any exploration costs associated at the site for DiscovEx, it also left the company with significant upside exposure to the project.
It is now looming as a strategy that could pay big dividends as Carnaby squirrels away at proving up a clutch of high-grade prospects in the pair’s shared acreage, including the developing Nil Desperandum and Lady Fanny South deposits.
Nil Desperandum has delivered a wealth of rich copper hits in recent times, including a solid 41m intercept running 4.1 per cent copper with 0.5 g/t gold from 274m, which included a higher-grade 9m interval going 10.3 per cent copper.
Similarly, Lady Fanny has turned out a broad 68m hit going 2.4 per cent copper and 0.4 g/t gold from 40m, in addition to a dazzling 13m strike running 4.4 per cent copper from 122m.
Outside of its JV operations, Perth-based DiscovEx is taking stock of its gold exploration efforts in Western Australia, with the company recently completing a 13,000m air-core program at its Edjudina project about 250km north-east of the Goldfields hub of Kalgoorlie.
Management unveiled three high priority drill targets at its Eastern Goldfields landholding and is in the throes of planning the next phase of work, including extensional drilling in and around the defined mineralisation.
With the management of a pipeline of highly-prospective Queensland copper targets squared away with its JV partner, DiscovEx can now focus on its WA assets, while potentially still pocketing a significant chunk of change from Carnaby’s ongoing work.
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By Helen Barling
