Copper Search awaits results from aggressive exploration push in SA’s Gawler Craton

Copper Search (ASX: CUS) is preparing to receive a significant amount of drilling results after an aggressive quarter of exploration activities at its district-scale projects in South Australia.

The highlight of the company’s work in the quarter ended 30 June 2024 was the commencement of drilling at its Peake project.

The two-hole diamond core program at Peake covered an under-explored area of South Australia’s prolific Gawler Craton.

Paradise Dam prospect

The Peake drilling program commenced at the Paradise Dam prospect with a planned depth of 600 metres.

Drilling at Paradise Dam is testing a 3km-long prospect defined by a strong chargeability anomaly of up to 50m volt-per-volt strength.

The rig will then move to test a large-scale shallow classic iron oxide copper-gold-style (IOCG) coincident “magnetics and gravity” anomaly at the Douglas Creek prospect.

The program is expected to take six weeks to complete.

Technical know-how

Chief executive officer and exploration manager Duncan Chessell said Copper Search had made a significant investment in technical know-how to define the two prospects being tested at Peake, both of which show tier-1 potential.

The Peake Project is located in the north-east Gawler Craton area now considered prospective for large-scale IOCG deposits.

Proof of concept of the Peake project’s copper potential was demonstrated in 2022 with confirmed Cloncurry-style IOCG alteration and mineralisation intersected in drilling on the neighbouring Wills and Mawson prospects funded by Oz Minerals.

Significantly, the Wills prospect is on the same structural corridor as several Copper Search targets.

Copper targets

“After a multi-year process of reviewing historical data and generating our own drilling and extensive geophysical data, we have identified the best large-scale copper targets to focus on this winter for drill testing,” Mr Chessell said.

“The company is now in a great position to realise the value of all that hard work for our shareholders.”

“Whilst the focus is on the current drilling at the Douglas Creek prospect, I’m also encouraged by the early studies of the potential on the Mt Denison tenement,” he added.

This work shows investors our commitment to continually generating new, high-quality targets for the future.”

Strong balance sheet

Copper Search ended the quarter with a cash position of $3.8 million, with its bank balance boosted by $2m through a share placement in May.

Along with the Peake drilling, the funds will be funnelled into an assessment of the gold prospectivity of the company’s Mt Denison claim.

Mr Chessell said Copper Search expects there to be a significant amount of news flow in the current quarter with the assays from the ongoing drilling program at the Douglas Creek prospect, along with results from stream sediment sampling at the Mt Denison prospect and the review of the non-copper potential of the Peake project.