Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) has announced it has started diamond drilling at the Yeneena Copper-Cobalt Project in the Paterson Province of Western Australia.
Encounter reports that under its earn-in joint venture (JV) agreement with major IGO (ASX:IGO), the venture is applying new and innovative exploration techniques at ‘high priority’ drill targets.
Yeneena comprises a major land position covering more than 1,450km-square in the ‘highly prospective’ Paterson Province, targeting copper-cobalt mineralisation. As part of the JV agreement, IGO can sole fund $15 million in exploration expenditure over a maximum of seven years to earn a 70% interest in the asset.
Commenting on the upcoming exploration at Yeneena, Managing Director Will Robinson said: “We are pleased to be partnering with IGO towards unlocking the considerable copper potential of the Paterson Province of WA, demonstrated by the recent discoveries in the region at Winu and Havieron.
“We are pleased to be partnering with IGO towards unlocking the considerable copper potential”
The planned 2022 activities represent a significant program of high impact drilling targeting sediment hosted copper. A number of new and innovative exploration techniques have been applied to generate these high priority drill targets.
The planned six-hole program of deep diamond drilling by IGO is a substantial investment in copper exploration at Yeneena.
This drilling, coupled with the upcoming diamond drilling at our 100%-owned Lamil prospect in the Paterson Province and by BHP at the Elliott copper project in the Northern Territory, means that the second half of 2022 is shaping as one of the most eventful drilling periods in Encounter’s history.”
The company reports that exploration at Yeneena is focused on discovering ‘high-value’ sediment-hosted copper deposits.
The strategy implemented by IGO involves the collection of belt-scale ‘high-quality’ primary datasets, with cutting-edge techniques used to acquire geological, geochemical, and geophysical data.
