Cooper Metals Ltd (ASX:CPM) is back on the ground at the new Ardmore tenement within the Mt Isa East Copper-Gold Project in north-western Queensland, conducting reconnaissance geochemical sampling.
The new work follows the identification of high-grade copper-gold rock chips in November last year, when the company reported assays of up to 17.3% copper and 0.4 g/t gold from a northeast trending shear zone in the prospective Corella Formation rocks.
Chasing high-grade copper-gold
Cooper is conducting the detailed geochemical sampling to better define the anomalism and cover new targets it picked out in a recent desktop review.
The 100%-owned Ardmore tenement is at the northern end of the same interpreted IOCG corridor, which is host to Carnaby Resources Ltd (ASX:CNB)’s Nil Desperandum, Lady Fanny and Mt Hope prospects.
The Ardmore prospect gives the company significant exposure to the highly prospective Fountain Range Fault, which is adjacent to Hammer Metals’ Ajax and Trafalgar copper-gold prospects northeast of Ardmore.
Previous prospective results
The company’s previous sampling activities uncovered a prospective 1.8-kilometre north-trending shear zone developed along the contact between mafic rocks and the Corella Formation, with assays up to 17.25% copper and 0.3 g/t gold, just 5.5 kilometres north of Carnaby’s Mt Hope prospect.
Other rock chip samples from the same shear zone include:
- 4.69% copper and 0.15 g/t gold, 3.78% copper and 0.04 g/t gold; and
- 1.86% copper and 0.84 g/t gold.
The company now hopes to conduct follow-up soil sampling with a portable XRF, focusing on copper analysis, to better define the strength and extent of copper mineralisation prior to geophysical surveys, ahead of any drill testing in 2023.
“Cooper’s team has mobilised to site to conduct geochemical surveys at Ardmore,” managing director Ian Warland said.
“Cooper has prioritised the Ardmore tenement for three main reasons, firstly; the tenement is along strike from Carnaby’s Mt Hope prospect and the interpreted IOCG corridor, secondly; Cooper’s earlier rock chip samples returned highly encouraging copper-gold assays and the potential for significant scale along strike, and thirdly; mineralisation identified to date is within a well-defined fault splay off the regionally significant Fountain Range Fault, hosted in the prospective Corella Formation.
“The portable XRF survey grids will rapidly provide information regarding the scale potential and strength of the copper anomaly. Cooper has several exciting targets at Mt Isa East which it is systematically assessing and ranking ahead of drill testing later in the year.”