New copper re-invigorates Yorke Peninsula

THE DRILL SERGEANT: There’s been a bit of fuss recently regarding copper exploration on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, but it’s nothing the area hasn’t seen before.

The region came to be known as the Copper Coast after a bloke by the name of Paddy Ryan stumbled across copper traces emerging from of the burrow of an industrious wombat in 1861.

Unfortunately for Paddy the land the wombat chose to inhabit wasn’t under his name, instead it was a pastoral lease granted to one, Walter Watson Hughes.

Presumably thankful for Paddy’s observational skills, Hughes subsequently formed the Tipara Mining Company, which later became the Moonta Mining Co.

In the late 1800s, Moonta boasted the largest urban population in South Australia outside of Adelaide, numbering around 12,000 people.

A good number of the growing population to descend on the new copper rush chasing their possible copper-based fortunes were many Cornish miners and their families.

Nowadays the Copper Coast is heavily reliant on diversified arable farming activities based on cereal grains, oilseeds and pulses, and livestock with the agriculture sector being a major employer within the region.

However…

There does seem to be something of a resurgence in copper exploration on the Yorke Peninsula with some companies beginning to spark the imagination of Resource-focused investors.

Marmota Energy (ASX: MEU) completed Phase 1 calcrete sampling at the company’s West Melton project in 2013, which identified key target zones on the West Melton and Melton Exploration Licences, which the company rated good enough to warrant low cost follow up exploration.

 

West Melton anomaly. Source: Company

 

The West Melton copper-gold project is located on the Yorke Peninsula adjacent to recent copper-gold discoveries and sits at the southern end of the Olympic Copper Gold Province, which is considered to be prospective for iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits.

When you throw names such as Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill, Carrapateena, and the historic Moonta-Wallaroo mines in to the mix that seems reasonable.

Late last year, Marmota completed a program of infill geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys on the company’s West Melton copper-gold project.

Assay results from 25 metre spaced infill calcrete sampling confirmed the existence of a copper in-calcrete anomaly coincident with gravity and magnetic features, extending for more than 1.2 kilometres.

Modelling of the results by Marmota indicate potential mineralised bodies could be as shallow as 15m.

Marmota has indicated that there has been no previous drilling carried out to test this particular anomaly, with the nearest historic drill hole four kilometres away.

The company has a program of shallow aircore drill testing of priority targets within the defined copper anomaly planned to commence this month (March 2104).

Several drill holes are also planned adjacent to the historic Areena mine shaft workings, located on the West Melton tenement, where historic copper mine information workings were undertaken in 1863.

According to Marmota a newspear of the day reported, ‘very good quality yellow and grey ore with green carbonate intermixed’ was extracted and was named the ‘Champion Load’.

The South Australia Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE) database reports malachite and chalcopyrite were extracted from the Areena workings.

Also busy in the region is Adelaide Resources (ASX: ADN) with its Moonta copper-gold project, located in the Moonta-Wallaroo district of the Yorke Peninsula.

 

Moonta copper-gold project location. Source: Company

 

In 2013, Adelaide carried out a 122 hole aircore drill program over a 1,100 metre interval of a 3,500 metre anomaly known as Alford West.

The drilling revealed mineralisation appearing to be continuous along the entire 1,100m section the company has tested to date.

The company completed a shallow air core drill program in 2013 at the Alford West prospect, which encountered some very encouraging intersections including:

20 metres at 4.2 per cent copper and 0.27 grams per tonne gold from 32m; and

45m at 1.56 per cent copper and 1.83g/t gold from 13m.
 
The company has also identified new prospective targets called Blue Tongue, Blue Tongue West and Kambula using FPXRF geochemistry near Alford West.

Adelaide Resources has just released results from its maiden aircore drilling of the Blue Tongue target, which encountered a wide zone of low grade copper mineralisation on each of three drill traverses completed.

Laboratory assayed intersections include:

ALWAC128
25 metres at 0.26 per cent copper from 29 metres downhole;

ALWAC129
12m at 0.29 per cent copper from 46m downhole;

ALWAC131
14m at 0.31 per cent copper from 59m downhole;

ALWAC143
8m at 0.34 per cent copper from 55m downhole;

ALWAC154
9m at 0.30 per cent copper from 27m downhole;

ALWAC156
8m at 0.48 per cent copper from 21m downhole;

ALWAC158
14m at 0.30 per cent copper from 38m downhole; and

ALWAC159
9m at 0.24 per cent copper from 73m downhole.

Adelaide said the Blue Tongue drilling program has extended the dimensions of the known mineralised system in the broader Alford West area, adding close to another kilometre of mineralised strike length additional to the main Alford West prospect.

The Blue Tongue mineralisation remains open to both the southwest and northeast and at depth, and the company declared it believes a good chance exists it will extend still further.

“The broader Alford West area is clearly emerging as a major copper mineralised system within the Alford Copper Belt, which also includes the large Wombat system to the west and potentially other mineralised systems to the east,” Adelaide Resources said.

“The recent drilling at Blue Tongue confirms that the FPXRF copper soil anomaly which defines the target is sourced by the underlying copper mineralisation, presenting a strong validation of the technique’s application.”