Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX:AIS) has been granted a new exploration tenement covering 140 square kilometres adjacent to its wholly-owned Tritton Copper Operations in New South Wales.
The new exploration tenement EL9285 borders current tenements, is adjacent to the Exley exploration prospect and extends the Tritton exploration footprint to 2,330 square kilometres within the highly prospective Girilambone basin.
Notably, Aeris has budgeted for a $15 million exploration program in FY22, including an airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey over the northern tenements.
“Prospective exploration ground”
Aeris executive chairman Andre Labuschangne said: “We will continue to look for opportunities to add prospective exploration ground around our Tritton Copper Operations.
“The proximity of EL 9285 to the Constellation deposit and the Exley prospect made applying for this ground common sense.
“We will commence first pass exploration activities on this EL during the current financial year.”
Aeries' Tritton tenement package.
Tritton tenement package
The acquisition of this additional exploration tenement is consistent with the company’s philosophy of exploring in “new space”, via the use of new technology.
To date, about 750,000 tonnes of copper has been discovered within the southern half of the Tritton tenement package, which has attracted the majority of exploration efforts in the past.
The northern half of the tenement package is under-explored but shows potential as evidenced by the Constellation deposit.
Over the past several years, greenfields exploration has advanced within the northern half, leading to the discovery of the Constellation deposit.
Forward plan
Initial exploration activities planned for EL 9285 in FY22 will focus on geochemical sampling through an auger drilling campaign and an Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) survey.
AEM is a quick and effective first pass geophysical survey method that is capable of detecting massive sulphide accumulations several hundreds of metres below surface.
A previous AEM survey completed in 2019 detected an EM anomaly which led to the discovery of the Constellation deposit.