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- Stavely Minerals has made a significant shallow high-grade copper-gold discovery at the Thursday’s Gossan prospect
- SMD050 intersected a thick zone of shallow high-grade copper-gold-silver mineralisation, with grades of up to 40 per cent copper
- Stavely was surprised to see SMD050 also intersected nickel (a higher grade than ever encountered), cobalt and chrome
- The current phase of diamond drilling is being conducted to evaluate the potential for near-surface, high-grade mineralisation
- SMD052 is currently being drilled
Stavely Minerals has made a significant shallow high-grade copper-gold discovery at the Thursday’s Gossan prospect.
Stavely received impressive assay results for the first diamond hole from a recent program, which targeted shallow structurally-controlled mineralisation within the Ultramafic Contact Fault.
Diamond hole SMD050, intersected a thick zone of shallow high-grade copper-gold-silver mineralisation, with “stunning” grades of up to 40 per cent copper.
On top of the high-grade copper results, gold grades of three grams per tonne and silver grades reaching 517 grams per tonne were recorded.
Executive Chairman Chris Cairns is pleased with the recent findings.
“It’s not often in the career of an explorer that you see 40 per cent copper grades over sub-metre intervals, let alone over two metres – and those stunning copper numbers are accompanied by very significant gold and silver values as well,” he said.
Stavely was surprised to see SMD050 also intersected nickel, cobalt and chrome. Results include: 4.4 metres at 3.98 per cent nickel, 0.23 per cent cobalt and >1% chrome.
While the prospect has seen a number of >0.5 per cent nickel intercepts, it has never seen intercepts of >1% nickel.
Stavely expects the nickel has come from the ultramafic by the hot and acidic hydrothermal fluids responsible for the copper-gold-silver mineralisation. Further evaluation will take place.
The company has also encountered a thick zone of 14.6 metres of semi-massive to massive sulphides including chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite from 79 metres to 93.6 metres drill depth, adding to this phase of major exploration breakthroughs.
The current phase of diamond drilling is being conducted to evaluate the potential for near-surface, high-grade mineralisation while Stavely completes a review of all results and data.
The review has highlighted significant similarities between the large mineralisation system at Thursday’s Gossan, and the Butte, Montana and Magma, Arizona copper deposits.
The identified similarities prompted Stavely to test for high-grade lode-hosted copper-gold-silver mineralisation.
“Additional mineralised structures are thought to exist without surface expression but are expected to provide a strong conductive response to a ground EM survey which is being designed, also as a priority,” Chris continued.
Currently the SMD052 hole, located 80 metres south-east of SMD051, is being drilled.
