Superior Resources has spotted visual copper mineralisation across the majority of a recently sunk 933m-plus diamond drill hole at its Bottletree copper prospect, part of its larger Greenvale project near Townsville in Queensland. The company believes it has its foot on a large-scale copper porphyry system at the project and is using the campaign to target the interpreted core.
The visual hits were defined in mineralised vein sets and disseminated copper zones.
The company says its latest probe, coined “hole 5”, was designed to test an area directly beneath the previously sunk “hole 4”. Earlier work at hole 4 defined 224m of copper grading 0.40 per cent. The over-220m intercept sat inside a larger, 632m parcel running 0.21 per cent copper.
Despite the modest grades received so far, Superior believes the results are from holes plunged into “leaked” mineralisation zones that surround the interpreted core. The company argues as it gets closer to the potential high-grade honeypot, the scores will improve significantly.
The base of hole 5 intersected stronger copper mineralisation over a 250m interval between 500 to 750m.
Superior says the results indicate a downdip continuation of a strongly mineralised distal copper zone struck in hole 4.
Management is yet to get a comprehensive grip on the zone’s scale and grade with its recent work unable to intercept a significantly mineralised system of veins.
According to the Queensland-based explorer, the veins ran sub-parallel to its drilling direction, meaning the zone was likely not intersected in its latest campaign.
Work so far suggests the distal copper zone is open in all directions.
In addition to the monster visual copper hit in hole 5, structural geological data from the probe point to a new porphyry target at the project. The zone is about 500m north-west of the hole and anomalous aerial magnetic and soil geochemistry results indicate the target could be hole 5’s source of mineralisation.
Superior believes it has at least two other potential copper sources at Bottletree – a deep laying porphyry underlined by veins in core pulled from hole 5 and a nearby, large-scale chargeability anomaly based on structural data from hole 4.
The company could deliver even more news flow with work at its southernmost bore, hole 6, having just been completed. Superior says the hole appears to have intersected the distal copper zone at depth, indicating mineralisation is centred around the zone’s north – similar to findings to those unveiled in holes 4 and 5.
Superior Resources’ Managing Director, Peter Hwang said:“Importantly, information from hole 5, indicates that the copper mineralised veins at this western location are potentially emanating from a newly identified large IP chargeability anomaly exhibiting chargeability responses that are consistent with responses from the strongly mineralised distal copper zone.”
“With only six porphyry targeted holes drilled so far and with the last two being incremental information gathering holes, we believe that the results so far are exceptional.”
Drilling so far has intersected the outer rim of the porphyry system and the company is now gearing up to sink several new holes across the project area as it looks to vector in on the ground’s porphyry core — where larger grades can be expected.
According to the Minerals Council of Australia, global demand for refined copper – a high purity form of the metal could reach more than 31 million tonnes by 2030, up about 7 million tonnes from recent figures.
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By Matt Birney
