Encounter Resources and South32 Launch Major Exploration at Jessica Copper Project

Encounter Resources (ASX: ENR) and joint venture partner South32 (ASX: S32) have commenced further exploration activities at their Jessica copper project in the Northern Territory.

The new program of work under Encounter’s farm-in agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of South32 includes a large program of geophysics and drilling planned in 2025 and will begin with a MIMDAS geophysical survey at Zeta.

The company will then conduct a 2,640km airborne electromagnetics survey in August-September 2025, which the NT Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations program is co-funding.

Diamond Drilling Plans

Executive chair Will Robinson said the geophysical work would help focus planning for the diamond drilling Encounter has scheduled to begin in October.

“Previous scout drilling at Zeta identified multiple iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) indicators, including chalcopyrite and bornite veins, and intense, pervasive red rock hematite alteration [we have] interpreted as a distal alteration signature to a potential IOCG-style mineral system,” Mr Robinson said.

“MIMDAS is well suited for exploring at depth for less conductive bodies such as IOCG deposits, which are not often associated with massive sulphides.”

Jessica Project Expansion

The Encounter-South32 JV has elected to add more ground at Jessica after reviewing drilling results from 2024.

This previous drilling intersected zones of hematite alteration and quartz carbonate, while seismic reprocessing and gravity data identified a series of targets for drilling including the Zeta IOCG target.

Encounter has highlighted Zeta as a significant and discrete gravity feature, coincident with a prominent magnetic feature on the margin of a large interpreted intrusive body.

Prospective Area

South32’s farm-in at Jessica, which traces back to 2022, will wholly fund initial exploration, with Encounter carried through to the completion of a scoping study.

Jessica covers approximately 8,700 sq km along key structural corridors east of Tennant Creek and is prospective for sediment-hosted copper and IOCG-style deposits.

Early exploration activities included the reprocessing of seismic data to provide greater detail of the geology and structure in the upper 1,000m and a large-scale gravity survey.