Odin Metals (ASX:ODM) reports that it has identified 3 new copper and base metals prospects at the Koonenberry Project in New South Wales.
The company says its current exploration program is focused on developing the project which is ‘prospective’ for VMS-hosted copper and magmatic nickel-copper-PGE, and contained 3 ‘prospective’ projects including Grasmere, Cymbric Vale and Wertago which were all historically mined in the late 1800s.
Odin reports it has received results from a large scale gridded geochemical soil survey conducted over prospective areas within the northern tenure, and the survey is the first of its scale and extent to be completed over an ‘under-explored’ area of known historic production, and the survey was designed to provide evidence of mineralisation and to accelerate and prioritise planned drilling.
The company states the survey is ongoing including infill and expansion testing proximal to the recently identified anomalies at Cymbric Vale and Rawlin’s tank as well as testing an area of interest within the western section of Odin’s tenure.
To date, Odin has received results from the first 3 phases of the program, with the most recent phase (over 2,000 samples) comprising grids across the Wertago Copper, and Nuntherungie Silver fields as well as across the Rawlin’s Tank orogenic gold prospect.
Odin Metals Executive Chairman Simon Peters said these are the second batch of detailed soil geochemistry results the company has from the Koonenberry Project.
“The results from the northern area of our tenements further reinforce our belief that the Koonenberry Belt is highly prospective for a number of styles of mineralisation”
“The results from the northern area of our tenements further reinforce our belief that the Koonenberry Belt is highly prospective for a number of styles of mineralisation including VMS hosted Cu-Zn-Au-Ag deposits (which is substantiated by the presence of the Grasmere deposit), magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE, epithermal Ag-Pb-Cu and orogenic Au.”
Odin reports the soil sampling program identified coincident polymetallic anomalies with each prospect featuring a unique assemblage of elements, and of particular interest to the company is the ‘apparent’ metal zonation with the silver-lead-zinc anomalism evident in the western part of the tenement transitioning to Cu-rich polymetallic anomalism to the east.
This indicates multiple phases of hydrothermal fluids and increasing the range of deposit style and mineralisation styles that could be hosted within Odin’s tenement package, and these anomalies are associated with several geophysical targets identified following a review of the regional aeromagnetic data and the HeliTEM survey completed in 2021.
Soil sampling from the Wertago Copper Field returned a broad scale coincident anomalies in gold, bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, molybdenum, nickel, lead, scandium and zinc, and the prospect also hosted the best gold results with 0.33ppm Au in soils returned in sample C02506, which Odin notes is 7 times greater than the next highest results.
The scale of the anomalies and peak copper and gold results have resulted in the Wertago Copper Field becoming the primary focus of Odin’s upcoming reverse circulation (RC) drill program.
Soil sampling over the historic Nuntherungie Silver Field returned broad scale silver anomalies as well as the highest silver results from the program with 2.2ppm Ag from C02866, and the company reports the silver and coincident lead and zinc anomalism seen in the soil geochemistry confirms the prospectivity of the area, which was the focus of historic mining activity.
Odin says the Jackson’s Bore target has been identified from the northernmost lines of the soil survey completed to date from the current geochemical program, with coincident silver, copper, cobalt, nickel, lead, scandium and zinc anomalism returned, and these results combined with those from Nuntherungie highlight the prospectivity of the western part of Odin’s tenure for silver-lead-zinc mineralisation. The Jackson’s Bore returned the best cobalt result with 64.7ppm Co detected in C03492.
The company states 4 lines of sampling was conducted across the Rawlin’s Tank target as part of the follow-up to the Cymbric Vale soil sampling program, and this prospect has a history of artisanal gold production and is potentially the surface expression of an orogenic gold system. Weak gold anomalism, coincident with arsenic, was detected in soils with a peak value of 0.02ppm Au returned in sample C03666, and Co, Mo and Sb were also anomalous in this area.
Odin also says the recent geochemical survey saw the addition of hyperspectral analysis of the soil samples to determine regional alteration patterns, and assemblages identified from this work further confirms the project area has been subject to hydrothermal mineralising fluids during its development. Alteration mapping will continue over Odin’s tenements with the company considering this technique a key tool that will aid target vectoring.
The company also reports a first pass RC drilling program over the Wertago Copper Field and Nuntherungie Silver Field has been approved by the New South Wales Resources Regulator, and drill planning is now in the final stages with drill pads and access tracks to be installed as soon as the weather allows, with drilling commencing shortly afterwards.
Odin Metals is a copper development and exploration company focused on the Koonenberry Project located 8km east of Broken Hill in New South Wales covering 2,800km-square.
Images: Odin Metals Ltd
