St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) has kicked off its maiden drilling campaign at the Paterson Project in WA's Paterson Province, "elephant country" for copper-gold discoveries.
The very first drilling program at the wholly-owned base and precious metals asset, named after the world-class Paterson mineral district, will double down on a series of high-priority copper and gold targets.
A 10,000-metre reverse circulation drilling campaign has commenced at E45/5226 — one of two exploration licences that make up the Paterson project. The program should run for eight weeks and cover 50 holes.
Ultimately, St George believes it’s primed for discovery at Paterson, where no modern geophysics or drilling techniques have been utilised to date.
Exploring active frontier
Commenting on the drill program, George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said: “We are delighted to be on the ground at the Paterson Project and commencing our inaugural drill program at this exciting exploration opportunity.
“The Paterson region is one of Australia’s most active exploration frontiers on the back of multiple major discoveries made over the past few years including Winu and Havieron.
“The Paterson is regarded as ‘elephant country’ and continues to attract significant investment from the major mining companies.
“Our technical team has worked methodically to establish a number of high-priority exploration targets. These have never been drilled and offer St George an excellent opportunity to deliver a new discovery.”
Doubling down at Paterson
St George’s maiden campaign at the WA project comes after extensive surveying was completed last year.
To get a better sense of the Paterson exploration licence’s prospectivity, the ASX-listed explorer conducted a high-resolution gravity and airborne magnetic survey.
Promisingly, the survey identified a series of geophysical signatures that St George believes are similar to those known to host major precious and base metals discoveries in the Paterson region.
Map showing St George’s tenements in the Paterson Province as well as major mines and other exploration projects in the region.
Walking in the footsteps of giants
Major discoveries in the region to date have fallen to mining monoliths like Rio Tinto Limited (ASX:RIO) (LON:RIO).
Recently, the ASX 200-lister delivered a 503-million-tonne mineral resource estimate for the Paterson Province’s Winu Project, grading at 0.45% copper equivalent.
Similarly, at the Havieron project, Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) (OTCMKTS:NCMGF) (FRA:NMA) (TSE:NCM) discovered 52 million tonnes of resource at 2.0 g/t gold and 0.31% copper.
These discoveries have piqued further interest in the Paterson Province, garnering attention from resources stalwarts like Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX:FMG) (OTCMKTS:FSUMF) (FRA:FVJ).
Promisingly, St George’s own exploration licence in the Paterson Province has a relatively low cover, which could allow the company to expedite drilling in the area at a lower cost.
In the meantime, the company continues to operate in line with COVID-19 restrictions and believes the Paterson asset complements its flagship Mt Alexander Project, a high-grade nickel-copper sulphide asset in WA.