Eastern Metals Ltd (ASX:EMS) has secured funding of up to $142,000 from the geophysics and drilling collaborations (GDC) program to support the upcoming resource extension drilling at the Home of Bullion (HOB) Copper Mine Project in the Northern Territory.
The HoB mine was previously one of the highest-grade copper ore bodies mined in Australia, with a mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 2.5 million tonnes averaging 1.8% copper, 2% zinc, 36g/t silver, 1.2% lead and 0.14g/t gold.
Looking ahead, the results of the upcoming resource expansion drilling program will further help characterise VMS and other targets that are known to the west and northwest of the HoB mine.
“Strong validation”
Eastern managing director and CEO Wayne Rossiter said: “The successful grant is a strong validation by the Northern Territory Geological Survey of the potential to extend the known lodes at the Home of Bullion deposit.
“This drilling is the first stage of our plan to add tonnage to the known high-grade copper deposit.
“This will be followed by seeking to identify additional lodes and mineralised structures in the highly anomalous areas around and along trend from the Home of Bullion deposit which includes tenure recently acquired from Bowgan Minerals Limited.”
Resource expansion drilling
Eastern Metals’ strategy is to conduct resource expansion drilling on the Home of Bullion deposit where the existing resource remains open along strike and dip.
In addition, several potential VMS and other targets exist along the trend, principally to the west and northwest of the deposit.
These targets include several identified by previous explorers which extend from the company’s EL 23186 into tenements recently acquired by Eastern Metals from Bowgan Minerals and include the Mulbangas copper prospect.
Two holes outside of the existing resource envelope will be funded from the competitive grants program funded under the NT Government’s Resourcing the Territory initiative.
Drilling planned at HoB includes eight diamond drill holes and two reverse circulation (RC) holes over two separate campaigns to test for extensions to the known deposit, and is expected to commence after final approvals are obtained
Moving forward, Eastern Metals is actively reviewing historical exploration information over the Donkey Creek tenement package, which lies within the Barrow Creek pegmatite field and is also prospective for gold, silver, REEs and lithium.