Surefire Resources will test a potential intrusive-related mineral system near old silver and lead workings at Kooline in the central Pilbara region with some deep drilling after securing WA government co-funding and finishing a successful review of previously generated geophysical data. The ASX junior says re-processed and interpreted Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetics, or “VTEM” survey results point to a large target with a series of conductors along strike to the west of Kooline.
Surefire’s Kooline project tenements cover an estimated 50km or so of mineralised Ashburton Formation, in the Ashburton Basin, about 55km south of the 1 million ounce Paulsens gold mine owned by Australian gold major Northern Star Resources. The Kooline mineral field yielded high-grade lead and silver from more than 40 shallow workings in the 1940s and 50s.
Limited exploration has occurred for more than a decade.
Surefire says the VTEM survey flown at the end of 2006 and recently re-examined by Southern Geoscience Consultants highlighted a large intrusive body and VTEM conductors along the south-eastern side of the interpreted intrusive, “possibly representing a heat and potential mineralised magmatic fluid source for an intrusive-related intracratonic magmatic copper-gold, or IMCG system”.
High-grade lead-silver lodes previously worked at Kooline are seen as potential distal, or cooler zones in the IMCG system that records indicate had more copper content in workings on the western side of the field. The copper was also present in cover material closer to the intrusive, Surefire said.
Management says VTEM conductors between the intrusive and the area of old Kooline workings might indicate copper-gold mineralisation close to the intrusive, making it a key target.
Other VTEM conductors within a 2km-by-2km area immediately along strike from the shallow old workings are said to correspond with an area of deep erosion and transported cover that is “essentially untested”, according to Surefire.
It plans to drill deep pre-collared diamond holes, planned and approved by the WA government for Exploration Incentive Scheme, or “EIS” co-funding to the tune of A$150,000.
Surefire says the drilling will target both extensions of the high-grade lead-silver lodes and copper-gold around the interpreted intrusive.
It also wants to probe interpreted splays from the major regional Baring Downs “crustal-scale” fault structure shown in detailed aeromagnetics to extend into the northern end of Surefire’s Kooline ground and where rockchips from previous sampling of sub-cropping quartz veins have assayed up to 38 grams per tonne. The company is looking for a repeat of Paulsens-style orogenic gold in what it sees as a prospective corridor.
Surefire managing director Roger Nikolaenko said: “Through re-processing and interpretation of geophysical data the company has identified potential for a major silver-lead and copper-gold system at Kooline. A series of deep drill holes have been planned to test this exciting new target, to be co-funded by the WA Government through the EIS program.
“We have also identified potential for high-grade gold similar to the one-million-ounce Paulsens deposit and we will look to advance these targets in parallel with testing the major base and precious metals potential identified.”
Surefire is advancing a new gold discovery at Yidby in WA’s southern Murchison district and also has iron ore and vanadium activities in the Murchison.
The company had nearly A$4.5 million in the bank at the end of the March quarter this year to continue building momentum at its highly prospective Pilbara and Murchison projects as new drill results come to hand.
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By Matt Birney
