As a new drilling program progresses at Australian Mines’ (ASX:AUZ) Doolgunna-Marymia nickel-copper-gold property in Western Australia, related exploration successes have continued to showcase the region’s potential for economically significant mineralisation.
Drilling announced this week by neighbouring explorer Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) has intersected near-surface massive sulphides along strike on either side of a hole which previously returned 18 metres at 5.7% copper and 2.4 grams per tonne gold from 107 metres.
These step-out successes have reinforced expectations that the area in proximity to Sandfire’s world-class DeGrussa copper-gold mine will emerge as an even more robustly developed mining district.
Australian Mine’s recent work in the area has included a readied drill program at the Burton prospect, down-hole electromagnetic (EM) surveying and planning for drill testing of the Little Well prospect.
Advances in these areas are expected to demonstrate a broader regional extension of Northern Star's recently acquired Plutonic Gold Mine only 40 kilometres to the east - a mine that has been in continuous production for over 20 years, producing over 5 million ounces of gold to date.
Additional support for the potential of Australian Mines’ fledgling development work has been identified in Talisman Mining’s (ASX:TLM) nearby Monty project, where copper grades as high as 7.6% have been recorded in work to establish a similarly DeGrussa-style deposit.
Burton in more detail
The hole drilled at Burton, within the Australian Mines – Riedel Resources (ASX:RIE) joint venture area detected a strong late-time bedrock conductor coincident with the Jenkin Fault structure.
Assay results from this reconnaissance drill hole at Burton that intersected a thick zone of anomalous copper that returned 21 metres at 0.05% copper + 0.21% zinc from 193 metres downhole.
Interestingly enough, this intercept bears some similarity to the initial RC drill results returned from Sandfire-Talisman’s Monty Prospect, which included 49 metres at 0.03% copper from 87 metres and 6 metres at 0.05% copper from 70 metres downhole.
Talisman’s 2011 RC drill hole SPRC141, which was drilled within 20 metres of Sandfire’s subsequent discovery hole at Monty only returned 7 metres at 0.21% copper from 65 metres down hole.
The presence of low-grade copper mineralisation in close proximity to the high-grade copper at Monty suggests that historic copper oxide intersections returned from Australian Mines’ Burton prospect such as 4 metres at 0.23% copper from 18 metres down hole located 150 metres east of the Burton conductor, are significant.
An RC drill program is to follow over the main bedrock conductor at Burton as well as extending the EM coverage over this prospective copper target.
Analysis
Sandfire’s continued investment in DeGrussa area step-out drilling and recent drilling progress highlights the local industry’s confidence in the expansionary potential of this province.
Australian Mines’ 1,300-square-kilometre footprint at Doolgunna-Marymia represents a substantial holding contiguous to ongoing exploration success stories.
Burton looks to be an interesting prospect and with similarities to Sandfire/Talisman's Monty prospect, further drilling will provide more perspective on potential mineralisation.
As one of the more junior operators in this immediate jurisdiction, Australian Mines offers considerable upside as its current exploration preparations unfold.
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