Silver City Minerals Ltd (ASX:SCI) has identified strong copper sulphide mineralisation in follow-up drilling at the Copper Blow project near Broken Hill in far west New South Wales.
The mineralisation was intersected in numerous magnetite-sulphide veins in the first two diamond drill holes of program that started earlier this month.
The veins host strong copper and iron sulphide mineralisation, and the copper-rich veins occur in clusters.
READ: Silver City Minerals begins 2018 with drilling at copper, gold and cobalt project
Core from the first hole has been cut and sent to the laboratory for analyses while the second is being geologically logged, processed and sampled.
Assay results are expected to start coming in from the laboratory in three weeks.
Fourth hole to be added
The company has started drilling the third hole and has decided to add a fourth hole to the program.
This decision was made on the basis of visual results and a new geological interpretation.
The campaign was designed to assess extensions to a number of high-grade intersections drilled by BHP Billiton plc (ASX:BHP) and Shell at the prospect in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
A consulting geologist’s report indicated that the mineralisation was of the iron oxide copper-gold type not previously recognised in the Broken Hill district.
Up 20% in early trade
Silver City reached $0.047 in early trade, up more than 20% on Friday’s close of $0.039.
The first hole was collared close to a previous hole that intersected two zones of high-grade mineralisation, including 4 metres at 6.1% copper, 4.23 g/t gold, 13 g/t silver and 220 ppm cobalt from 188 metres.
It was designed to test for deeper extensions and was drilled to 300.4 metres.
The second was drilled to 386 metres and was designed to test continuity of grade between intersections in two historic holes.
These returned 11.8 metres at 6.7% copper and 1.92 g/t gold from 189.2 metres and 19.2 metres at 1.8% copper from 234 metres respectively.
Previous hole to be extended
While the diamond drill rig is on site, Silver City has also decided to extend a previous reverse circulation hole.
This hole was originally designed to test beneath a historical hole which contained a high-grade intersection of 11.8 metres at 6.7% copper and 1.92 g/t gold from 189.2 metres.
High water flows prevented completion of the reverse circulation hole, which was terminated at 223 metres, before the target zone.
A diamond tail from the base of this hole is scheduled to test the zone 60 to 70 metres vertically below historical intersection.
This work is expected to begin later this month.
Cobalt of particular interest
Of particular interest to the company will be results for cobalt.
A number of intersections from a previous 2700 metre campaign contain elevated cobalt.
These include 5.2 metres at 0.14% cobalt from 400 metres, 2 metres at 0.08% cobalt from 48 metres and 0.75 metres at 0.29% cobalt from 333.6 metres.
The magnetite-rich rocks throughout the prospect are elevated in cobalt with surface rock samples returning grades to 0.15% cobalt.
Strong focus on Broken Hill district
Silver City Minerals is a base and precious metal explorer with a strong focus on the Broken Hill district, home of the world’s largest accumulation of silver, lead and zinc.
It has a portfolio of highly prospective projects with drill-ready targets focused on high-grade silver, gold and base-metals.
The company has a pipeline of prospects moving toward the drill assessment stage.
Copper Blow, which is 20 kilometres south of Broken Hill, is the ongoing focus of exploration efforts.