St George locks in Paterson exploration program

ASX-listed explorer, St George Mining, has a foothold on some early stage multi-metal exploration ground in the sought after Paterson Province in the eastern Pilbara region of WA.

The company has one granted tenement in the Paterson covering over 35 kilometres, that, according to management, holds the same geological characteristics as the behemoth Telfer gold mine that has produced over 32 million ounces of gold and 1 million tonnes of copper to date. One additional tenement is also still under application.

With little to no historical exploration on St George’s new ground, the company now plans to kick off a low cost, first pass aeromagnetic survey.

The new survey will enable the company to gain an apparition of the scale of prospective rock types put together a structural framework and hopefully, plan some first pass drilling.

St George’s Paterson project, located in the northern section of the Paterson Province, also enjoys an enviable address adjoining large tenement holdings owned by the likes of FMG and Rio Tinto.

Directly west of St George’s granted tenement lies the Citadel prospect, a greenfields discovery made by ASX-listed Antipa Minerals in 2012, just 100km north of the Telfer gold-copper-silver mine.

Antipa now has a JV agreement with mining goliath, Rio Tinto, who up until January this year, as operator of the project, had spent a whopping $11 million on exploration across Citadel.

Calibre and Magnum, two established deposits in the Citadel project, together hold a current resource of 63.8Mt grading 0.8 grams per tonne gold, 0.2% copper, 0.6g/t silver and 161ppm tungsten for a contained 1,639,000 ounces of gold, 127,300 tonnes of copper, 1,241,000 ounces of silver and 10,300 tonnes of tungsten.

St George Mining Executive Chairman John Prineas said:  “We believe our ground is highly prospective with prominent structural features and interpreted geology that may host mineral deposits similar to those already identified in the Province.”

“We are very excited at the opportunity we have at the Paterson Province and look forward to methodically progressing exploration at the Paterson Project while we continue our aggressive exploration and development activities at our flagship Mt Alexander nickel-copper sulphide project.”

With a veritable platter of potential minerals on its discovery plate, including copper, gold, tungsten, silver, lead and zinc, St George has the Paterson at its feet with a project that could well attract a cashed-up suitor to accelerate exploration on any promising target it may initially prove up.

Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting ? Contact : matt.birney@businessnews.com.au