East Star Resources Plc (LSE:EST) said it started a helicopter electromagnetic (HEM) survey on its Rudny Altai volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) licences in Eastern Kazakhstan.
The survey is anticipated to take 40-50 days, with data processing and technical review and targeting to follow, and is expected to enable the London-listed company to prioritise drilling targets.
"HEM surveying is highly effective in direct detection of conductive sulphide deposits in which large conductivity contrasts exist between the orebodies and host rocks,” said chief executive Alex Walker.
“It is the same style survey that was used to discover Havieron, the Greatland Gold and Newcrest gold-copper discovery in Western Australia.”
The Rudny Altai region is one of the largest VMS provinces in the world and East Star’s licences contain more than 20 historical mineral occurrences - including copper, lead, zinc, gold and tungsten - and mines.
“To the best of our knowledge East Star is the first company ever to use this geophysical technology on the Rudny Altai VMS region and so we're very excited to begin work on this prolific but underexplored area,” said Walker.
“The infrastructure on the licences includes rail, road and power and the area boasts two potentially suitable mills - both carrying spare capacity - making the economic threshold to develop any discovery extremely low,” he added.