Magmatic Resources regains Parkes copper-gold project after Japan Oils and Gas Metals National Corporation pulls out

Magmatic Resources (ASX: MAG) advised the market this morning that Japan Oils and Gas Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) has pulled out of the Parkes copper and gold joint venture after spending $2.7 million on advancing the asset over the past three years.

The project is along strike of Alkane Resources’ (ASX: ALK) Tomingley mine and is also close to Alkane’s recent Boda copper-gold porphyry discovery.

Magmatic managing director David Richardson said the company was “very excited” about the project’s “upside potential” and pointed out JOGMEC had prioritised copper targets when advancing the project despite “significant” gold targets across the licences.

According to Magmatic, the gold targets MacGregors and Stockman’s had not been advanced despite previous exploration intercepting 10m at 1.25 grams per tonne gold from 146m.

“The $2.7 million spent on exploration advanced several key targets, particularly diamond drilling at the Buryan copper-gold porphyry target, which is about 20km from China Molybdenum and Sumitomo’s Northparkes copper-gold porphyry mine,” Mr Richardson said.

“The joint venture also completed an aeromagnetic survey at the Parkes East tenement which identified nine new porphyry targets and three new orogenic gold targets.”

He added the nearby Boda find and Alkane’s other discoveries near Tomingley highlight the region’s potential for ongoing exploration success.

Magmatic pointed out the MacGregors and MacGregors South prospects had been identified along a 2km gold trend.

Meanwhile, a 930.05m diamond hole was undertaken at Buryan in May and intersected 10m at 0.49g/t gold from 448m, including 2m at 1.67g/t gold from 456m.

Broader intervals of copper mineralisation were also uncovered including 79m at 0.11% copper and 0.06g/t gold from 545m, and 57m at 0.17% copper and 0.11g/t gold from 822m.

Future exploration at Parkes

Now that Magmatic again wholly-owns the NSW-based Parkes project, it will focus future exploration on identifying the core to this mineralised system.

Exploration will comprise reprocessing aeromagnetic data from the area and completing a close-spaced ground magnetic survey.

Magmatic noted it would also review pathfinder and lithogeochemistry and relog previous diamond and aircore holes.

Shares in Magmatic rocketed in early morning trade before settling at $0.13 late morning – up 73%.