Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) continues to strengthen the case for a larger resource, ahead of an anticipated Q4 release, with the discovery of wide copper zones southwest of its Horden Lake Project.
Drilling at the Quèbec-based project has extended the deposit along strike and plunge, as well as infilled a gap between historical drilling.
A 50m step-out to the southwest from previous drilling at this level returned a peak intersection of 16.5m @ 0.84% copper equivalent from 34.75m, including 8.1m @ 1.14% from 41.9m.
This shallow mineralisation is within the 2022 resource estimate open pit constrained boundary.
Meanwhile, hole HN-24-111 returned a wider-than-expected intercept of 40.6m @ 0.62% copper equivalent from 129.5m, including 7.3m @ 1.68% from 158m, which infilled a 170m gap between historical drill holes.
An additional 6.2m @ 1.69% copper equivalent was intersected from 177m, below the 40.6m hit.
Managing Director Ivan Fairhall says the results significantly enhance Pivotal’s understanding of the Horden Lake deposit’s southern extent.
“We look forward to incorporating these findings into our Q4 resource update, which we expect will demonstrate the growing potential of this asset,” he says.
Downhole electromagnetics (EM) and historical drill results also support the continuity of the Horden Lake main zone down-plunge and across the full southern extent.
The recently completed 7,097m, 34-hole maiden drilling program was designed to infill missing by-product multi-element assay information, target resource expansion potential and collect a representative metallurgical sample for test work.
Pivotal says the known mineralisation is well defined by the magnetic and coincident EM anomalies along a northeast-southwest trend that transects the project.
Beyond hole HN-24-111, drilling and geophysics show that the mineralised trend continues up to 700m southwest, beyond the observed in-hole fault and shear.
Previous drilling into this along-strike anomaly, 450m to the southwest of HN-24-111, returned an intersection of 23.7m @ 1.24% copper equivalent from 33.4m.
However, much of the historical drilling is interpreted to have missed the likely main plunge of mineralisation, based on detailed magnetics now available and Pivotal’s understanding of the Horden Lake structure.
The company considers this area an “excellent target” for further shallow resource expansion.
Horden Lake, which remains open at depth across its full extent, currently hosts an indicated and inferred resource of 28 million tonnes @ 1.5% copper equivalent.
Metallurgical testwork is underway, with a resource update slated for release in the final quarter of 2024.
Planning is also underway for step-out and regional discovery drilling.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Pivotal Metals
