Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE) has started a 27-hole (4,300m) RC and diamond drill program at the Tarraji-Yampi Project, located in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.
The program follows on from the Orion Cu-Ag-Au-Co massive sulphide discovery which is 350m wide and modelled to at least 500m deep and under just 1m of cover.
Since 2021, a combination of auger geochemical and geophysical surveys has identified 13 Orion look-alikes with similar geochemical and geophysical signatures including 5 with known outcropping mineralisation and 6 with coincident, highly conductive bodies.
Dreadnought’s Managing Director Dean Tuck declares the long-anticipated drill program to follow up on the 2021 Orion Cu-Ag-Au-Co massive sulphide discovery “is finally here”.
“The intervening period has been used wisely to identify 13 Orion look-alike targets that are equal to or better than Orion at the same stage. These are all attractive drill targets that could lead to discoveries.
“The intervening period has been used wisely to identify 13 Orion look-alike targets that are equal to or better than Orion at the same stage. These are all attractive drill targets that could lead to discoveries“
Any additional discoveries close to Orion would define a camp scale copper opportunity at a time when copper demand is increasing on the back of electrification and decarbonisation.
This is a high impact program at the project that Dreadnought was founded upon. We are excited to commence this program and look forward to what the drilling produces.”
The Tarraji-Yampi Project was off limits to exploration from 1978-2013, a period that saw over 50% of Australia’s mineral deposits discovered through the application of modern geophysical and geochemical techniques and an evolving understanding of mineral systems.
Dreadnought says the region is known to contain outcropping quartz copper-gold lodes that were mined for copper on a small scale in the early 1900s and explored briefly by WMC in 1958 and ACM in 1972.
The geological, geochemical and regolith of the project area contains many similarities to the Cloncurry District near Mt Isa and Tennant Creek. Dreadnought, for the first ever time, is applying modern exploration techniques and knowledge to discover mineralisation under the black plain soils.
The 2023 RC and diamond drilling program aims to achieve 2 main objectives – prove the scale potential of Cu-Ag-Au-Co mineralisation at Tarraji-Yampi through the discovery of additional massive sulphide bodies.
The second is to test the depth extents of Orion where geophysical modelling shows mineralisation continues to at least 500m and gets stronger at depth. This testing is co-funded by the highly successful Exploration Incentive Scheme from the Geological Survey of Western Australia.
Upon positive results, the above samples will be collected for metallurgical test work.
Dreadnought says these objectives will be achieved through RC drilling of the Orion look-a-like targets with follow up down hole EM (DHEM), and diamond drilling to test Orion at depth and to collect metallurgical samples.
This program is expected to run for 3-4 weeks with updates and assays throughout October to December 2023.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Dreadnought Resources
