Green metals explorer EV Resources (ASX:EVR) reports it is consolidating its land position over the New Standard Copper Project, located in Arizona, US.
Following a review of exploration conducted in 2022, the company says it will be prioritising the eastern bloc of the project located close to the former Pride Mine, where mapping and sampling has produced a number of ‘high-grade’ samples.
Based on assay results from sampling undertaken in 2022, and in parallel with current market conditions, EV Resources has determined to not exercise its option for the New Standard licences as a further $400,000 payment does not reflect value for the company relative to its priority targets.
EV Resources reports it will concentrate on the 2,996 hectares recently pegged which will be named the New Pride Project, recognising the priority placed on the zone surrounding the Pride mine workings.
The company also says assays collected in September 2022 from 130 samples from surface and accessible underground sources returned copper values up to 13.1% Cu, and averaging 1.41% Cu. Gold values returned up to 27.1g/t Au, and averaged 0.43g/t Au.
The New Pride Iron Oxide-Copper Gold (IOCG) grassroots exploration project is located about 20km east of Parker in La Paz County, Arizona.
In January 2022, the company secured an option to acquire 100% of 6 unpatented lode mining claims covering an area of about 124 hectares (New Standard licences).
Subsequently, EV Resources staked an additional 145 unpatented lode mining claims at 20.66 acres each for a total project area of about 2,996 hectares, all of which is on public lands.
The company reports the project area has seen sporadic mining from 1880 to 1969, with the bulk of work conducted between 1910 and 1920, with a second period of ‘significant’ activity between 1940 and 1970.
Workings include over 100 shallow prospect shafts, a number of vertical shafts, and from at least 5 horizontal adits with lengths up to 27m. The company reports ore was hand sorted and processed in small quantities at mills located at the Pride Mine and the New Standard Mine.
Mineralisation is located in a region characterised by low-angle, extensional dislocation surfaces known as detachment faults. The Buckskin-Rawhide detachment fault cuts across the study area.
West of the fault, in the hanging wall, the rocks are chiefly Paleozoic-age carbonate rocks and Tertiary-age sedimentary rocks. East of the fault in the footwall, the company says the rocks are granitic gneiss, locally mylonitic.
EV Resources says mineral deposits are associated with detachment faults at several localities in the southwestern US. Host rocks in the project area are primarily gneiss both of mafic and felsic compositions, and carbonates appear to have acted as a buffering material as many of the larger concentrations of mineralisation are located at or below the contact between carbonate and silicic rock.
The company says the next step for the project will be planning a geophysics program which will evaluate and determine the potential of the project area to host a sulphide orebody. This will involve the evaluation of optimal methodologies and the availability of suitably skilled specialists will be investigated.
EV Resources is an ASX-listed green metals explorer operating a portfolio of projects across the globe. These projects include the Khartoum, Shaw River, and East Pilbara projects in Australia, and the New Standard Copper Mine in Arizona, US
Other projects currently held by the company include the Weinebene and Eastern Alps Lithium Project in Austria, the Tierra Blanca Project in Mexico, and the Yanamina Gold Project in Peru.
Images: EV Resources Ltd
