Victory cranks up drill bit at Bonaparte base metals targets

ASX-listed explorer, Victory Mines, has kicked off a round of RC drilling targeting historical high-grade drill hits at its second-string but intriguing Bonaparte base metals project about 70km north of Kununurra in the Kimberley region, WA.

Only last week the Perth-based company launched a drilling campaign at its joint-ventured, flagship Coogee gold project about 55km south-east of Kalgoorlie in the quest to expand the modest historical inferred and indicated mineral resource.

Historic rock chip samples and drill holes encountered high-grade lead-zinc and copper mineralisation within the Bonaparte project and a recent encouraging reconnaissance program by Victory compelled it to get the drill rods spinning.

Victory has started the 10-hole program at Bonaparte that will include twinning historical drill holes with modern drilling methods and sampling techniques. The drilling is expected to be completed and assays returned to the company for interpretation by late next month.

The company is also planning a downhole electromagnetic survey at the project aimed at determining the presence and orientation of primary sulphide conductors. The geophysical survey is due to take place in the second quarter of next year following the end of the wet season.

Victory recently re-assayed drill core from historical diamond drilling – done in the early 1980s – after it engaged a consultant geologist to carry out a field reconnaissance mission on the ground. That fruitful trip involved the collection and analysis of rock chip samples, geological mapping, recovery and re‐analysis of historical drill cores and locating historical drill hole collars.

According to the company, high-grade sniffs from the rock chip sampling conducted during the field mapping across selected parts of the tenement suggest copper, lead and zinc anomalies “could be much greater than initially considered”. The company says values of up to 25.9 per cent copper were returned from outcrop rock chip samples collected.

The historical drill core re‐analysis confirms, according to Victory, that previous drilling over the Redbank cupriferous structure intersected significant copper mineralisation. Notable intercepts from the re-assaying work were 3.1m going 3.99 per cent copper, 80.8 grams per tonne silver, 2.98 per cent lead and 0.1 per cent zinc from 47.4m, including 1.3m at 8.4 per cent copper, 181 g/t silver, 5.3 per cent lead and 0.17 per cent zinc from 46.1m, and 3.8m at 1.26 per cent copper from 45.8m.

Reinterpretation of the available diamond drill core combined with field mapping, historical gravity and EM data indicate the Redbank structure may be mineralised over a strike length of 2.8km. The structure in the recovered drill core can be traced in outcrop and in gravity images through other areas showing significant copper anomalies, Victory says.

In addition, the company was able to glean new assay information from historical drilling reports from the early 1970s. It identified encouraging intercepts from the old percussion drilling including 6.1m at 3.13 per cent copper from 3m, 12.2m at 2.36 per cent copper, 1,800ppm lead and 365ppm zinc from 16m, 1.5m at 1.35 per cent copper from 10.6m and 1.5m at 1.1 copper, 5,300ppm lead and 380ppm zinc from 19.8m.

Results from the Bonaparte field trip have certainly galvanised Victory’s exploration endeavours and the modern drilling it is undertaking at the project will provide an interesting aftermath to the efforts of the frontier pioneer explorers of the 1970s and 80s.

Bonaparte is located only about 30km west of Pacifico Minerals’ developing 75 per cent-owned Sorby Hills lead-silver project, which has a recently updated mineral resource estimate of 44.1 million tonnes grading 4.5 per cent lead equivalent.

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