Alice Queen drilling at Boda East points to possible porphyry system
Alice Queen anticipates increased news flow relating to assay results in the coming weeks.
Alice Queen (ASX: AQX) reports its drilling at the Boda East copper-gold project in New South Wales has produced evidence of a porphyry system.
The 2021 diamond drilling program kicked off at Boda East, part of the company’s Yarindury project, on 10 January.
The prospect is located about 700m from the large porphyry copper-gold Boda discovery made last year by Alkane Resources (ASX: ALK) and sits on a 13km-long north-south trend.
Ten diamond holes have now been completed for 6,819.62m.
The best copper-gold assays so far include 1m at 0.01 grams per tonne gold and 0.25% copper, 1m at 0.26% copper, 1m at 0.35g/t gold and 0.33% copper, while another returned 1m at 0.24g/t gold and 0.45% copper.
Alice Queen reports that copper, gold and molybdenum have now been identified over a 550m north-south extent, and that a series of discrete dykes are hosted by the mafic volcanic rock.
System remains open along strike and at depth
Alice Queen managing director Andrew Buxton said the results from Boda East are consistent with those that delineate the top of a mineralised porphyry intrusive complex.
This complex remains open along strike length and at depth.
“Prior to this drill campaign, we set out to identify a possible porphyry system which we are now pleased to advise that we have succeeded in doing,” Mr Buxton added.
“The deposit model suggests that we have intersected only the upper parts of a system which may improve at depth.”
Follow up drilling is planned.
Boda East consists of four tenements covering 700sq km along strike from the Cadia operation of Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM).
The company has previously said there has been a lack of exploration on its Boda East ground due to the presence of cover, which masks the underlying geology.
Alice Queen has identified a 13km trend across Boda East and has divided this into four target areas, prioritised for drilling based on prospectivity and community consultation criteria.
The company began drilling at Boda East in July 2020.