Mining

Caravel Minerals identifies new potential at Bindi copper deposit

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By Lorna Nicholas - 
Caravel Minerals ASX CVV Bindi East Limb copper resource increase

Caravel Minerals plans to release an updated resource for its namesake Caravel copper project late next month.

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Caravel Minerals (ASX: CVV) has identified potential for increased copper resources at the Bindi deposit within its namesake project in Western Australia, following completion of drilling and an updated geological model.

The company noted recent infill drilling had extended the known higher-grade shoots at the Bindi Hinge target and identified new higher-grade shoots within the East Limb target.

One of the higher-grade shoots is coincident with the Bindi SE Synform fold.

According to Caravel, observations of drill core from the Bindi SE Synform has led to fresh interpretation the target fold could add further “significant” resources.

“In summary, the recently defined shallow and higher-grade zones have a reasonable expectation of becoming part of the early mining schedule,” Caravel explained.

Bindi deposit

The Bindi deposit hosts the largest resource within the Caravel project with an estimate of 223.4 million tonnes at 0.36% copper for 796,100t of contained metal.

Caravel has had a major drilling program at Bindi underway since late 2020.

All-up, the company has completed 34,230m of drilling at the deposit – comprising 7,275m of diamond core and 26,955m of reverse circulation.

Drilling aimed to expand the resource and better-define its margins, while also testing for extensions at depth.

The program also had the objective of uncovering new areas of shallower higher-grade mineralisation which can be mined in the early stages and boost confidence in these areas.

Boosting geological confidence

Meanwhile, drilling is continuing at Bindi using the remaining diamond rig.

This has the goal of improving geological confidence in mineralisation between Bindi Hinge and Bindi West Limb targets.

Assays from infill drilling at Bindi are pending and will be incorporated into an updated mineral resource which is scheduled for release late next month.

The resource will then underpin the current pre-feasibility study which is being completed at the project.

Based on a 0.15% copper cut-off grade, the Caravel project has a current global resource of 661.9Mt at 0.28% copper and 55 parts per million molybdenum for almost 1.87Mt of contained copper metal.