Javelin Minerals has upped its planned maiden drilling program at the Coogee gold project near Kambalda in WA from 2500m to 3000m after identifying several opportunities to extend known mineralisation.
The company plans to launch its combined reverse-circulation (RC) and diamond drilling program in mid-November in two phases to confirm potential extensions below the old Coogee open-pit and to expand mineralisation north and west of the pit.
The Coogee open pit and its immediate surrounds have not been subject to any systematic exploration drilling since Ramelius ended mining at the site in 2014.
Javelin has engaged geologist Peter Langworthy’s OmniGeoX consultancy to design and plan the program and geologist Alf Gilman’s Odessa Resources consultancy has reviewed historic drilling data. The review has identified some immediate opportunities around the old pit.
The proposed drilling was prompted by results from Javelin’s extensive reviews of reprocessed geophysical and other data which have already lifted Coogee’s resource to its current estimate of 126,685 ounces of gold.
The geophysical reinterpretations also identified eight new tantalising geophysical targets and Javelin plans to direct its focus toward testing the five closest priority walk-up targets at Coogee and also north and west of the old mine.
The first three high-priority targets all lie within the company’s smaller mining lease and within 1km of the old Coogee open-pit mine and include the first priority high-intensity magnetic anomaly at Coogee North.
Javelin will open the campaign at Coogee North where it will explore the northward extension potential from the old Coogee mine along the intervening 350m strike distance to Coogee North.
Coogee North already hosts a 2.95 million tonne resource going 1.01g/t gold for just over 96,000 ounces of gold and 1.01 million tonnes of copper at 0.41 per cent copper for just over 4000 tonnes of the red metal.
Javelin says previous drillholes at Coogee North were not deep enough to test the glaring magnetic anomaly which it says looks a lot like the anomalism which led to Spectrum Metals Penny North and Spartan Resources’ Dalgaranga extension discoveries – both of which were within shouting distance of historic discoveries.
Importantly, the magnetic high anomaly at Coogee North highlights a potential repetition of the historic Coogee lode and Javelin has earmarked ten drillholes for 1650m to test it.
The second priority suite of six new drillholes for 745m will probe the depths immediately west of and below the historic Coogee open-pit area which already features a resource of 57,759 tonnes at an average grade of 1.29g/t gold for an estimated total of 14,841 ounces of gold.
At its Coogee “Northwest Trend” target, Javelin has set aside two drillholes for a total of 280m to test an interpreted north-west trending shear which sits about 600m west of and parallel to the Coogee shear system which hosts the high-grade Coogee deposit.
Some 2km south-west of the Coogee open pit, Javelin’s fourth priority target sits in the south-west corner of the company’s small mining lease and within the obtuse angle of two intersecting linear structures evident in low-level magnetic data.
The location was selected primarily on the basis of historical air-core (AC) drilling which intercepted shallow gold mineralisation and which Javelin plans to test with one initial 70m deep hole to establish mineralisation continuity along strike.
The fifth priority target is a big untested, ovoid, high-intensity magnetic high located about 2km west of the Coogee open-pit and just outside the Coogee mining lease boundary with Javelin’s adjacent exploration licence.
It constitutes the biggest magnetic high response anomaly among the five priority targets and was originally identified in early reviews as the CG-04 target and as the Coogee West geophysical area.
Javelin says that based on its magnetic intensity, the anomaly could be rated higher than the first priority anomaly at Coogee North, which is already known from previous relatively shallow drilling to host gold-copper mineralisation.
It says Coogee West represents a very high order, undrilled gold-copper drill target and has assigned it a single 450m deep scout drillhole to intercept below the modelled top of the anomaly which starts from 300m depth and ominously, extends as far as 1km in depth.
Management says its phase-one program will comprise the first 3000m of drilling while the meterage for its proposed phase-two campaign will be subject to results from preceding drilling at each target.
Curiously, Javelin has entered into a drill-for-equity agreement with experienced Kalgoorlie drilling contractor Topdrill. Under the terms of the agreement Javelin may elect to settle up to 50 per cent of the metreage costs, charges and active drilling services invoiced by Topdrill with equity.
The arrangement applies up to a maximum of $1 million, which Javelin says it will use for the first and second phase Coogee drilling programs.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
