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Emmerson Resources plans high impact drilling as 3D model provides Kiola copper-gold targets

Published: 04:58 17 Sep 2021 BST

Emmerson Resources Ltd - Emmerson Resources plans high impact drilling as 3D model provides Kiola copper-gold targets
High-grade copper sample from Right Hand Creek Mine within the Kiola Geochemical Zone.

Emmerson Resources Ltd (ASX:ERM) is planning high impact drilling at Kiola Project in the Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW after a 3D MIMDAS geophysical model identified new copper-gold drill targets.

A MIMDAS geophysical survey has been completed to assist the 2021 exploration program and this identified a number of copper-gold targets described by the company as compelling.

As a result, a first-phase drilling program of four holes for a minimum of 2,500 metres has been approved with Emmerson aiming to test a variety of targets.

The start of the drilling is subject to securing a drill rig within the constraints of COVID requirements.

Potential for multiple intrusive centres has been confirmed from the integration of geochemical and geological data within an area of highly anomalous copper-gold and historic workings.

Compelling 3D model

Emmerson managing director Rob Bills said: “Phase 1 of our planned 2,500 metres drilling program is aimed at testing a selection of chargeable, conductive and magnetic targets within around 15 square kilometres of Kiola Geochemical Zone (KGZ).

“There has been no deeper drilling within these zones to test for the source of the gold and copper mineralisation.

“Emmerson, in combination with our geophysical consultants, have produced a compelling 3D model at our Kiola project in NSW.

“This new model suggests a connection between the surface mineralisation within the Kiola Geochemical Zone (KGZ) and a porphyry copper-gold system(s) at depth.”

3D and 2D MIMDAS Geophysical Model and inversions stretching from the mineralised Nasdaq skarn in the north to the Yards prospect under cover in the south.

Kiola Project

Kiola is one of Emmerson’s higher ranked, early-stage gold-copper projects in the NSW portfolio and is centred on the 15 square kilometres KGZ.  

It lies within the highly ranked Molong Belt which hosts Alkane Resources Limited (ASX:ALK)’s Boda copper-gold discovery and Newcrest Mining Ltd’s world class Cadia-Ridgeway deposits

Kiola project encompasses favourable Ordovician age rocks that display anomalously high gold and copper geochemistry plus historic workings.

Recent work has confirmed that the KGZ contains many of the attributes of world-class porphyry gold-copper mineralisation and is divided into a northern area centred on the Nasdaq skarn and a southern area around the South Pole, Kiola and Right-Hand Creek mine.

Emmerson’s multifaceted field program has included soil and rock chip geochemistry, with rock chip samples returning up to 19.6 g/t gold and 2.16% copper.

Subsurface 3D model

The company has also utilised ‘green rock alteration’ and age dating to refine the subsurface 3D model and provide vectors to the core of the copper and gold mineralisation.

This has provided the framework for linking the surface geology and mineralisation within the KGZ to a unifying model at depth.

Bills said: “This 3D model comprises of a central core, mantled by large and highly chargeable and conductive anomalies.

“Although the outcrop within the project area is sparse, these sub-surface, strongly chargeable zones are continuous over 5 kilometres from the Nasdaq skarn in the north to the Yards prospect in the south.

“Age dates from a small outcrop of monzodiorite at Dolly’s North is comparable to other large copper-gold porphyry deposits in the Macquarie Arc, such as the Newcrest’s Cadia-Ridgeway cluster of deposits some 100 kilometres to the north.”

The large geophysical survey, which incorporates the reinterpretation of an existing VTEM (Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic) survey undertaken by the company was a large investment and has produced some highly encouraging results.

Specialist inversion modelling

Mitre Geophysics principal geophysicist Kate Hine said: “The Kiola 3D model has generated some compelling drill targets which will be tested in phase 1 and assist in further refinement of the model.

"The Kiola MIMDAS geophysical survey produced some very strong anomalies that benefited from specialist inversion modelling.

"The integration of the magnetotelluric (MT) and induced polarisation (IP) data is aimed at producing the best possible understanding of the subsurface. The 3D MT model required the data to be sent to specialist MT experts in Germany for high power computations.”

This science-based, systematic exploration underpins the first phase of drilling which has been lodged as part of a submission for 50% funding of the direct drilling costs to the NSW Government’s New Frontiers Cooperative Drilling program.

According to the company, a decision on whether this submission was successful will be known in the next few months.

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