FireFly Metals targets high-grade copper and gold with $10m exploration campaign at Green Bay

FireFly Metals (ASX: FFM) is preparing to undertake a $10 million exploration campaign after identifying a number of enticing copper and gold targets at its Green Bay project in Newfoundland, Canada.

The compelling new walk-up targets were defined by a detailed review of historical data, with the studies highlighting geological prospects for both VMS-style mineralisation and orogenic vein-style gold deposits.

The company believe the targets reinforce the potential for new discoveries to be made outside the project’s main Ming mine.

Key targets

Key targets include the Rambler Main gold and copper mine, where FireFly has identified the potential to test for deeper mineralisation.

Rambler was only mined to approximately 200 metres below the surface and remains completely open.

Known intersections include 25m at 4.7 grams per tonne gold and 0.24% copper.

FireFly will further investigate the Rambler East mine, which contains intersections of 13.0m @ 1.5% copper and 21.0m @ 1.2% copper, as well as the nearby Little Deer mine, which contains a mineral resource of 9.1 million tonnes at 1.91% copper equivalent.

Numerous indicators

Managing director Steve Parsons said FireFly’s strategic position at Green Bay also contains numerous significant indicators of sub-surface mineralisation, including a substantial 2km by 1km gold-in-till soil anomaly with gold grades up to 23.3 g/t at South Brook and rock chip samples of up to 27% copper at the Green Bay South target area.

“The outstanding drilling results we have been generating show clearly that we are in the midst of an exceptional volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralised system.”

“Now we have identified a host of compelling targets, some of which we already know are strongly mineralised nearby.”

“These are high-quality prospects and any new discoveries would have the potential to drive substantial increases in the Green Bay resource at a similarly high grade, creating further significant shareholder value in the process.”

Exploration funds

FireFly has budgeted $10m of the proceeds from a a $52m capital raising in March towards regional exploration aimed at accelerating new discoveries in addition to the current plans for resource growth at the company’s proven Ming mine.

A systematic regional exploration campaign has commenced with data compilation and the newly identified initial priority targets.

This will be followed by geophysical data acquisition and geological targeting to commence this quarter, then drilling.

The company’s exploration plans have also been backed by strong support from the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial government via a grant of around $100,000 as part of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program.

Drill campaign planned

FireFly is planning to undertake 10,000m of surface drilling at Green Bay later this year.

The campaign will initially target the Little Deer project area before moving to the Rambler VMS district targets.

In parallel with the regional exploration, FireFly continues to fast-track resource growth work at the Ming mine, with four underground drill rigs operating on mineral resource extension drilling.

A resource update is on track for completion in late 2024, followed by another resource growth update in early 2025 and engineering study works soon after that.