New World Resources Limited (ASX: NWC) has announced the intersection of a new zone of a 22m-thick mineralised interval, including 7.8m of massive and semi-massive sulphides, at the Antler Copper Project in Arizona, USA.
The company said that the new thick zone of mineralisation was intersected in the first hole, ANTDD202026, drilled to begin testing the southern extension of the Antler Deposit at depth. NWC said that the mineralisation intersected was ~250m below surface and 120m down-dip from the closest previous drill hole.
New World Resources said that this is another strong indication that the mineralisation may be consistently getting thicker with depth. The company reported that the mineralisation remains open and untested down-dip from the
NWC said that the follow-up drilling to test for extensions of the mineralisation in ANTDD202026 has already commenced – with two rigs operating at the Project and a third scheduled to be on site early next week.
Antler copper project
The Antler Copper Project is located in a sparsely populated region of north-western Arizona in the USA. The Antler Deposit lies within a NE-trending belt of Precambrian gneissic and schistose rocks thought to have originally been volcanic in origin. The Deposit comprises a stratabound, pyrrhotite-rich, copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) body.
The Antler Deposit lies within two patented (private) mining claims that cover 40 acres. The Deposit is surrounded by an additional seven unpatented (BLM) mining claims that cover a further 340 acres.
The Antler Deposit outcrops over 750m of strike and is significantly underexplored, particularly at the southern end; and t depth along the entire strike length.
100% rights since March 2020
The company had secured the rights to acquire 100% of the Antler Deposit in March 2020. Since then, New World has targeted all of its deep drill holes at an interpreted zone of thicker mineralisation directly down-plunge from the historical workings. This target, which extends over approximately 200m of strike, had been based on results from very broadly-spaced historical drilling.
Drilling at Antler
Over the past few months, the Company had commenced drilling at Antler.
High-grade results from the previous drilling
The company had reported exceptional results from the targeted area (interpreted zone of thicker mineralisation directly down-plunge from the historical workings).
Significant hits included 23.3m @ 3.48% Cu, 8.84% Zn, 1.24% Pb, 64.4 g/t Ag and 0.50 g/t Au from 445.0m; 30.5m @ 1.99% Cu, 4.85% Zn, 0.09% Pb, 11.1 g/t Ag and 0.46 g/t Au from 408.0m; 17.4m @ 2.63% Cu, 6.72% Zn, 0.64% Pb, 26.9 g/t Ag and 0.26 g/t Au from 382.3m; 10.6m @ 4.15% Cu, 8.22% Zn, 0.69% Pb, 32.4 g/t Ag and 0.50 g/t Au from 410.65m; 22.5m @ 1.72% Cu, 1.53% Zn, 0.23% Pb, 13.2 g/t Ag and 0.13 g/t Au from 353.3m; and 2.7m @ 3.04% Cu, 9.58% Zn, 0.03% Pb, 15.4 g/t Ag and 0.21 g/t Au from 402.6m.
New World Resources said that this zone of thick, high-grade mineralisation remains open at depth, and the Company continues to explore depth and strike extensions as part of its ongoing drilling program.
NWC said that it had successfully acquired new geophysical, geochemical, and geological data over the 750m of outcropping mineralisation and integrated this information with historical data, with a view to expediting discovery of thicker zones of high-grade mineralisation along strike from the historical workings.
After completing the interpretation of new Induced Polarisation data in October, the Company had recently commenced drilling to evaluate the southern extension of the Antler Deposit.
New thick zone of mineralisation from southern extension
The company announced that the first hole drilled into southern extension of the Antler Deposit, ANTDD202026, intersected a 22m-thick, well-mineralised interval from 291m down-hole, including a combined total of more than 7.8m of massive and semi-massive sulphides (including 7.0m of massive and semi-massive sulphides over 13.3m.
The company said that the mineralisation intersected in ANTDD202026 is approximately 250m below surface and more than 120m down-dip from the closest previous drill hole (DDH13 – which intersected 0.55m @ 0.74% Cu, 12.40% Zn, 0.90% Pb, 17.1 g/t Ag and 0.17 g/t Au from 167.9m as well as 0.12m @ 0.42% Cu, 11.30% Zn, 0.60% Pb, 20.5 g/t Ag and 0.34 g/t Au from 174.6m)
NWC said that the assay results for ANTDD202026 are expected in mid-December.
Significant potential
The company announced that the results indicate that mineralisation may also be thickening with depth at the southern end of the Deposit.
NWC said that the results from ANTDD202026 further confirm that there is considerable potential to discover additional mineralisation at the Antler Deposit, which remains significantly under-explored over much of its known footprint.
Updates and next steps
The Company is agressively exploring the Deposit, with two rigs currently operating at the Project and a third rig scheduled to arrive on site early next week.
The Company said that in the near term, it will continue to test for extensions of the continuous thick, high-grade mineralisation delineated to date more than 300m down-dip from the historical workings, while also testing for extensions of the Antler Deposit to the south.
New World said that it intends undertaking further drilling around and below the areas where stoping has historically been undertaken, with this drilling ongoing.
The company had recently completed an IP survey over, and along strike from, areas where mineralisation has previously been mapped to outcrop at the Antler Project. NWC said that the IP anomalies have been integrated with all technical data and initial drilling to commence evaluation of highest priority targets is underway.
Management comments
New World Managing Director, Michael Haynes, said: “Intersecting a thick zone of sulphide-rich mineralisation in our first hole outside the area we have been drilling recently is a fantastic result. While more drilling is required, this new intersection provides further evidence that there is a lot more mineralisation to be discovered at Antler.
Our ongoing exploration success should continue to enhance the economic viability of recommencing mining operations at the Project.”