Great Western Exploration (ASX:GTE) is gearing up to drill its Oval Copper–Gold Target in Western Australia with a rig now mobilised to site.
The program comprises four diamond drill holes to depths ranging from 600m to 800m.
Great Western says the geological and geophysical attributes of Oval represent Winu and Haverion-style intrusive-related copper-gold mineralisation and highlight the potential for a “very large copper-gold discovery”.
The Winu Project, which was discovered by Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) in 2017 and put the Paterson Province on the radar, is a copper-gold deposit located in the northern Pilbara region of Western Australia, about 320km east of Port Hedland.
Winu hosts around 721 million tonnes @ 0.4% copper and 0.33 grams per tonne gold.
Rio Tinto actually identified the Oval target that Great Western is now about to drill in the 1990s, but failed to intersect the electromagnetic anomaly, with the Rio Tinto hole terminated 70m above the conductor.
Modern exploration undertaken in partnership between Great Western and Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) located the target below Rio Tinto’s drilling.
The Oval and Oval South targets are now solely owned by Great Western.
The Oval target is located on the intersection of a crustal scale and basin defining fault, and within favourable stratigraphy of the Yerrida Basin for copper-gold mineralisation formation.
Drilling will target the multiple and coincident geophysical and geological attributes of the Oval Copper-Gold Target.
Great Western interprets these coincident features as representing potential for metal-rich sulphide mineralisation.
Oval sits within Great Western’s Yerrida North Project, located on the northern and western portions of the Yerrida Basin about 800km north-east of Perth and adjacent to Sandfire’s DeGrussa and Monty copper-gold volcanic-hosted massive sulphide deposits.
Drilling will be completed in two stages, starting with two holes drilled at the Oval Target and the geological model refined to guide the remainder of the drilling program.
Each hole is expected to take about three weeks to complete, with assay results anticipated about six to eight weeks following the completion of drilling.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Great Western Exploration
