GreenTech Metals has intersected thick copper-zinc zones below six shoots during a new 1743m drilling program, indicating significant resource expansion potential at its Whundo project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
The campaign was designed to drill-test underexplored mineralisation along a 2.1km-long string of targets at Whundo – taking in the company’s Austin, Shelby, Yannery and Ayshia prospects – and was followed up by downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys on selected holes in a bid to identify new copper-zinc mineralised zones.
Management today unveiled results that include primary intercepts at Austin of 16m at 1.2 per cent copper, 0.12 per cent zinc and 0.035 grams per tonne gold from 230m including 8m at 1.5 per cent copper, 0.21 per cent zinc and 0.039g/t gold from 230m. Ayshia gave up 10m at 1.2 per cent copper, 1.2 per cent zinc and 0.09g/t gold from 260m including 3m at 3.1 per cent copper, 2.6 per cent zinc and 0.23g/t gold from 261m.
The Ayshia drilling also offered up the program’s best hit of 4.6 per cent copper in a 1m intercept from 262m, with supportive 1m intercepts immediately above and below of 1.3 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively.
Despite a recent softening for the global copper price, the news clearly resonated today with ASX punters, who drove the company’s share price up by more than 54 per cent to an intraday trading high of 14.5c on the back of the biggest volumes since February,
GreenTech Metals executive director Tom Reddicliffe said: “We’re thrilled with the stage-one drill results, which show real potential to significantly grow Whundo’s current 6.2Mt copper-zinc resource by targeting down-dip extensions to our known shoots. With this strong start, we’re very eager to get back out on the ground for our next stage of drilling to push further into these high-grade zones and accelerate building the Whundo copper resource base.”
Down-dip continuity of copper-zinc shoots beyond 230m depth was confirmed by the follow-up DHEM surveys at both Austin and Ayshia.
At Shelby, a DHEM survey revealed a big conductor plate measuring more than 400m by between 50m and 100m, with a conductive response above 15,000 siemens – which is higher than previous responses from already-known mineralisation at the site.
The 2.1km-long strike of the overall area of interest is bracketed by the two most significant open-pit mining excavations at the site, the biggest of which is the Whundo pit at the south-western extremity of the trend and the smaller Ayshia open-pit at the north-eastern end of the trend.
The key drivers for the program evolved from the results of a high-level review completed in early May, which revealed the potential for significant resource expansion within or close to the cluster of volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS)-style copper-zinc deposits at Whundo.
With the sense of imminent growth in the base metal potential at Whundo, GreenTech recently formed a copper-focussed “Pilbara Base Metal Alliance” with Anax Metals. It envisages employing Anax’s fully-permitted processing plant at Whim Creek as a near-term processing option for GreenTech’s open-pittable Whundo deposit.
The partnership says the combined assets of the two companies provide significant operational, financial and corporate benefits.
GreenTech’s latest drilling represents the first half of a 2200m reverse-circulation (RC) program at its 100 per cent-owned Whundo volcanogenic-hosted massive-sulphide (VHMS) project.
Between the Whundo and Ayshia pits, three other EM targets have been identified, including the biggest Austin target, which appears to lie snugly against, beneath and west of the Whundo and smaller Whundo West open pits and dip westwards. Austin remains open at depth down-dip.
The current program put a 372m-deep hole into Austin, while a single hole was also put into Ayshia to a depth of 378m.
The Shelby EM anomalism lies about 500m north-east of Austin. Results from a deep 648m-deep hole from the target are awaited.
Drilling of Shelby in 2006 by Fox Resources produced an intercept of 11.25m going 1.6 per cent copper from 391.25m including 5.8m running 2.4 per cent copper from 391.25m.
The Yannery target lies a further 350m north-east of Shelby and is smaller in the extent of its EM signature. However, it features a small shallow resource and several small prospecting pits and it has not yet been drilled.
The Ayshia open pit sits about 700m north-east of Yannery and features a smaller EM anomaly, which the company interprets as being a potential deeper extension of the known resource that remains open at depth.
With the recent completion of the first stage of the program, planning is now underway for a follow-up drill program to continue testing the depth potential at the Austin, Ayshia, Yannery and Shelby targets and any extensions. The latest results confirm that potential exists to significantly increase the existing mineral resource of 6.19 million tonnes at 1.12 per cent copper and 1.04 per cent zinc and to develop a new copper project in the region.
And with the Whundo project sitting in a granted mining lease and processing options likely to be available, either through GreenTech’s new alliance with Anax or via Artemis Resources’ Radio Hill processing plant, the company is looking well-placed to achieve success at this interesting and long-overlooked venture.
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By Doug Bright
