Javelin Minerals has struck high-grade gold and copper in a maiden drilling program at its Coogee project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, 20 kilometres northeast of Kambalda, hitting grades of up to 65 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 8.5 per cent copper.
The results of the 2921-metre reverse circulation drill program have now pushed the mineralisation strike out past one kilometre, significantly extending the existing resource to the north. It also extended the strike at depth beneath the existing pit. The company says the results have reinforced Coogee’s potential as a high-value mining opportunity.
While drilling for extensions to the north-west trend, the bit jagged high-grade mineralisation including 5 metres grading 14.22g/t gold from 143m with a 1m chunk running at 65g/t gold and 1.91pc copper from 145m.
Another drillhole beneath the current pit confirmed rich depth extensions with a 10m hit running at 4.55g/t gold from 91m, including a 1m section grading 38.1g/t gold from 98m.
Another hole drilled to the northeast confirmed lateral extensions, striking 7m grading 6.42g/t gold including 7m of 2.54pc copper from 108m, and a 1m slice of 8.53pc copper from 109m.
To the south of the pit further mineralisation was picked up with another 4m intercept running at 2.22g/t gold from 80m.
The Coogee resource currently stands at 3.65 million tonnes at 1.08g/t gold for a total of 126,685 ounces of gold, alongside 1.01mt at 0.41pc copper, containing 4133 tonnes of the red metal.
Javelin is now reviewing all the data for a potential resource upgrade.
Sitting in a highly prospective greenstone belt, Coogee is surrounded by significant gold deposits, including Silver Lake Resources’ 400,000-ounce Salt Creek mine, the Daisy-Milano mine and the Gold Field Ltd-controlled St Ives gold camp.
Javelin Minerals executive chairman Brett Mitchell said: “This is a fantastic start to our exploration program at Coogee. We are focused on Coogee because we saw the potential for it to become a near-term WA brownfields exploration success story. The results reveal new high-grade shoots outside the existing resource, both along strike and below the existing open pit.”
The current campaign represents the first systematic exploration at Coogee since Ramelius Resources pulled stumps in 2014. After mining a 70m open pit Ramelius recovered 147,400 tonnes of material at 4.7g/t gold for 20,400 ounces of gold.
The ore was processed at the nearby carbon-in-leach Burbanks Mill with metallurgical recoveries at the time running to an impressive 96.4pc.
The latest drilling campaign has potentially provided a company-defining moment for Javelin, given it designed an exploration program to chase lookalike nearby deposits that may have gone unnoticed.
The same near-mine theory recently massively rewarded neighbouring ASX-listed Spectrum Metals and Spartan Resources, both of which found multi-million-dollar gold deposits lurking just north of their old open pits.
Spectrum Metals unearthed a new 355,000-ounce deposit five years ago at Penny North grading 13.8g/t just 300m from the old Penny West open pit. Spartan had similar luck jagging a 721,000-ounce gold resource at its Never Never project, with grades of 5.85g/t, also just 300m north of its old pit.
With phase one drilling out of the way, Javelin is gearing up for a second phase to test for extensions of the newly identified shoots and chase a high-priority magnetic anomaly to the north, dubbed Bullseye, along with a similar target 1.5km to the west of the old pit.
The gold prices, currently trading close to all-time highs and just shy of US$2900 (A$4677) per ounce, are proving a huge fillip for junior gold miners at the moment. With the improving prospects of a new discovery seemingly just around the corner and with easy access to third party milling facilities, Javelin now has the bit well and truly between its teeth.
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By James Pearson
