Silver City Minerals Ltd (ASX:SCI) has confirmed the presence of an extensive mineral system from its recent soil geochemical program at the Copper Blow project, 20 kilometres south of Broken Hill.
Soil and rock chip data, including historical trench samples, indicate a number of multi-element anomalies considered to be indicative of iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation.
These extend for 4.5 kilometres along strike and broadly straddles a magnetic ironstone in the Copper Blow Shear Zone.
Magnetite in this shear zone produces a linear magnetic anomaly with old mine workings contained within the entire length of the anomaly.
READ: Silver City Minerals confirms IOCG-style system at Copper Blow near Broken Hill
Importantly, the new soil data suggests that geochemical anomalism at surface is associated with sulphide mineralisation at depth.
The widespread presence of sulphide is also outlined by gradient array induced polarisation (IP) geophysical surveys.
It is apparent from both the soil and IP surveys that sulphide extends well beyond the ironstone shear.
Copper Blow lies within an IOCG domain similar to that in the adjacent Gawler Craton where some of the world’s largest IOCGs occur; notably Olympic Dam.
Pathfinder elements
Silver City is focused on copper-gold mineralisation at Copper Blow. However, it is evident that this style of mineralisation is accompanied by a wider range of similarly anomalous elements.
In this case these include molybdenum, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements cerium and lanthanum.
These may be more broadly dispersed around a central copper-gold mineralised zone.
The presence of these and other pathfinder elements indicates the same mineralising fluids which produced copper-gold at Copper Blow were also present at the Northern Targets and the Southern IP Target.
There is significant potential for copper-gold rich bodies to occur at depth within these anomalies.
What next?
Silver City is currently assessing the mineral resource at Copper Blow and is waiting on analytical results from recent drilling.
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It is apparent that the copper-gold mineralisation in the North and South Zones at Copper Blow represents only a small part of a much larger mineral system.
The company will assess the areas adjacent to the Copper Blow Shear and other magnetite and gravity anomalies to determine the extent of the mineral system and generate further copper-gold targets for drill-testing.