Alderan Resources rejigs ground at Detroit project, drops less prospective areas
Alderan Resources has relinquished areas of its Detroit project with the least prospectivity.
Utah-focused gold and copper explorer Alderan Resources (ASX: AL8) has renegotiated an option over ground within its Detroit project, slimming down the acreage to focus on the most prospective targets.
The new deal with vendors George Miller and Ron Myers now covers 27.7 hectares, down from 44.5ha — and the number of claims included down from 60 to four.
Alderan has retained the areas closest to Detroit’s Chargeability Stem and Skarn anomalies and plans to drill those two anomalies this year.
The Detroit project lies within the Detroit mining district, 290km southwest of Salt Lake City and contains numerous historical copper, gold and manganese mines.
Alderan controls tenements through a series of option agreements with companies such as Tamra Mining and Freeport McMoRan, plus a number of local claim owners.
The company says the renegotiation is part of its strategy of rapidly exploring option areas and retaining only those that are prospective.
Alderan also drops option over Valley Crossroads ground
Meanwhile, Alderan has advised another party, Utah-based Tamra Mining, that it is withdrawing from the option agreement covering the Valley Crossroads project area.
This follows Alderan reviewing all historical drilling and sampling data and then drilling three holes at the Black Rock prospect which failed to intersect significant mineralisation.
Alderan managing director Scott Caithness said reducing the Miller-Myer option fitted that strategy.
“This enables Alderan to maximise its expenditure on in-ground exploration at Detroit where the company is focused on the high potential Drum and Mizpah oxide gold deposits,” he added.
Strategic ground retained and to be drilled
However, the Chargeability Stem and Skarn anomalies, which sit on the margins of the Miller-Myer leases, remain unexplored.
The renegotiation has enabled Alderan to retain strategic ground around those two anomalies which it regards as important targets for future drilling.
The Detroit mining district has been explored for copper and gold in the past by major mining companies such as Anaconda Copper, Kennecott, Newmont, BHP (ASX:BHP) and Freeport but no one company was able to build a contiguous land position to enable district-wide modern exploration.
Freeport McMoRan had tried to consolidate what is now the Detroit project, but those efforts were rebuffed — but Alderan succeeded in pulling off the consolidation.
Records show that about 120,000oz of gold was produced there in the 1870s.