Faraday Copper (TSX:FDY) continues to uncover near-surface copper mineralisation at its Banjo breccia target in Arizona, US, placing it in a good position as it heads towards a planned resource upgrade in 2025.
The results of the latest hole from the continuing phase-three program show an intersection of 22.65m @ 1.31% copper from within a broader section of 50.20m @ 0.74% from a depth of 56.20m.
This hole was drilled around 200m northeast of the American Eagle breccia and 270m north of the discovery hole for Banjo, and drilled to the east.
Faraday notes this hole, together with previous drilling and surface geological mapping demonstrates that mineralisation at Banjo extends from surface to 400m depth, and remains open.
The hole was drilled to evaluate the near-surface mineralisation above the recently discovered Banjo breccia in the American Eagle area, part of the 3km-long Copper Creek Project. It was also drilled to collect geotechnical data.
CEO Paul Harbidge says the nature of mineralisation in this hole suggests significant concentration of copper through supergene enrichment.
“To date, approximately 75% of our phase-three drilling has been focused on the discovery of additional near-surface mineralisation outside the resource area to further unlock the potential scale of the project,” he says.
Results from drilling so far have provided further confidence for a “large near-surface” resource at the American Eagle deposit.
Faraday has uncovered several new high-priority targets, which it says provides “significant exploration upside”.
The Rum area features porphyry-hosted copper oxide mineralisation at surface and several breccias over an area of about 250m by 400m, located 700m north of the resource area.
The American Eagle area, meanwhile, hosts numerous untested breccias with anomalous copper at surface, Faraday says.
Drilling is currently focused on further delineating mineralisation and testing new breccia targets.
The Copper Creek Project has combined open pit and underground measured and indicated resources totalling 421.9 million tonnes @ 0.45% for 4.2 billion pounds of contained copper.
The measured and indicated open pit resource currently sits at around 127.1 million tonnes @ 0.40% copper for 1.1 billion pounds of copper.
Faraday has identified 34 target so far ranging from early conceptual to mineral resource targets.
The American Eagle area spans about 800m by 1km and hosts several prospective breccias and porphyries demonstrating strong copper geochemical signatures, according to Faraday.
These surface expressions are located above the underground porphyry resource, which sits about 500m to 1.1km below surface.
Historically, the near-surface mineralisation was not adequately tested as previous drilling was vertical to steeply inclined.
Mapped geology, isolated historical drill intercepts, and historical small-scale mining show the potential for near-surface mineralisation.
Faraday has reported assay results for 11 holes drilled at the American Eagle area as part of the current program.
Drilling continues in the area to test additional previously undrilled breccias, including the Courthouse, Jailhouse, Post Office, and Giuseppe breccias.
Follow-up drilling is planned at the Prada, American Eagle, and Banjo breccias.
Faraday has so far released the results from 65 drill holes that have not yet been included in the existing resource.
The company expects to include over 30,000m of incremental drilling to the resource update planned for 2025.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Faraday Copper
