St George Mining is off to a flying start in its copper-gold search in the “world-class” Paterson region of Western Australia with multiple holes from its maiden drilling campaign at its Paterson prospect hitting prospective basement rocks. Initial XRF analysis has returned elevated levels of pathfinder elements suggesting potential for base metal and gold mineralisation across 35km of target stratigraphy at the company’s tenure.
The company’s preliminary evaluation takes in the first 10 holes of a 10,000m drilling blitz at St George’s 100 per cent owned property.
Management says the prospective lithology coincides with several important features identified through gravity and magnetic surveys conducted at Paterson.
The features are said to be comparable with other structures hosting base metal and gold mineralisation in the district.
St George believes the stratigraphic setting identified by the drilling is akin to Rio Tinto’s Winu copper-gold deposit some 50km south-west of Paterson, where the mining major has delineated a 503 million tonne resource going at 0.45 per cent copper-equivalent.
The relatively shallow cover at St George’s ground ranging between 150m and 180m deep is also similar to the average cover depth at Winu.
Management says XRF readings of the basement rocks at Paterson returned highly anomalous bismuth, arsenic, copper, zinc, lead, molybdenum and vanadium, with copper going as high as 0.2 per cent. They said these elements were usually related to sediment-hosted stratiform copper systems.
XRF analysis of observed chalcopyrite in igneous rocks also returned copper grading up to 0.6 per cent.
Select rock samples have been submitted to the labs for more detailed petrological analysis.
St George’s Executive Chairman John Prineas said: “The initial results from the inaugural broad-spaced drill programme at our Paterson project are already exceeding our expectations. We are seeing geological features and lithologies which are indicative for mineral deposits in the region. These early observations are confirming our belief that our ground is fertile for base metal and gold mineralisation.”
“Given these highly encouraging results, we are seeking to source a diamond rig to complete deeper drilling to further test these emerging high-value copper and gold targets.”
To date St George has completed 18 holes for more than 3,300m as part of a 50-hole campaign.
The Paterson region is regarded as one of the premiere mineral provinces in Australia and hosts Newcrest Mining’s Telfer gold mine where some 27 million ounces of gold have been delineated.
The Winu and Havieron copper-gold discoveries have stoked an appetite for exploration in the district with Fortescue Metals Group, OZ Minerals and IGO among other key active players.
Havieron is a joint venture between Newcrest Mining and London-based Greatland Gold. So far they have outlined a 52Mt resource going at 2 g/t gold and 0.31 per cent copper.
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By Matt Birney
