Asian Battery Metals PLC (ASX:AZ9) has had a great start to drilling at the 100%-owned Copper Ridge prospect of the Yambat Project in the Gobi-Altai region of Mongolia with encouraging copper and gold results returned from the first scout hole.
Hole CRS01A with a length of 200.5 metres has confirmed semi-continuous mineralisation from the surface to 187 metres vertical depth below the surface.
Best copper equivalent (CuEq) intercepts include:
- 20 metres at 0.60% CuEq (0.21% copper and 0.43 g/t gold) from 7 metres, including 7 metres at 1% CuEq (0.32% copper, 0.76 g/t gold) from 10 metres;
- 33 metres at 0.34% CuEq (0.17% copper, 0.19 g/t gold) from 32 metres;
- 30.9 metres at 0.38% CuEq (0.24% copper, 0.16 g/t gold) from 76.3 metres;
- 33 metres at 0.41% CuEq (0.25% copper, 0.18 g/t gold) from 113.5 metres; and
- 13.5 metres at 0.41% CuEq (0.29% copper, 0.13 g/t gold) from 178 metres.
“Very encouraging”
Managing director Gan-Ochir Zunduisuren said: “The assay results are very encouraging for the first drill hole completed at Copper Ridge.
"It shows prospectivity of the region for copper-related mineralisation and potential target size in next stages of exploration.
"Further work focusing on the understanding of a mineral system at Copper Ridge and an expansion of detailed ground geophysical surveys will be planned in the December quarter of 2024. This will be key to next stages of drilling program design and planning.”
Validates surveys
Scout drilling has confirmed that the copper and gold extends to potentially significant depth.
It has also validated the effectiveness of the geophysical surveys such as chargeability, metal factor and magnetic values as a targeting tool.
Gold and copper continued to show a relatively stable correlation and the maximum interval copper grades increased steadily with downhole depth.
Based on geological and geophysical evidence, including magnetic anomalies, it is possible that the copper-gold mineralisation extends beyond the current depth of the drill hole.
Further work planned
The company said the results were significant as they supported the potential for a large tonnage, sulphide-rich system with multiple mineralised zones at Copper Ridge.
Further exploration work is planned to expand this exciting new target.
The company is working on improving road access to a number of prospective drill site locations in the remainder of 2024 with a full-scale drilling program to test multiple geophysical targets to depth planned for 2025.