Monger Gold confirms copper-gold mineralisation at Providence prospect
Drilling at Mt Monger North will test depth and extensions to mineralisation intercepted in the initial campaign last year.
Junior explorer Monger Gold (ASX: MMG) has confirmed significant copper results associated with high-grade gold from drilling at the Providence prospect within its Monger North project in Western Australia.
One hole in the program was reported to have encountered a different mineralisation style of gold associated with copper in massive chalcopyrite hosted in a basal dolerite.
It returned a significant result of 2m at 0.46% copper from 130m, including 1m at 0.56% copper, alongside 8m at 4.34 grams per tonne gold, including 1m at 21.3g/t gold.
Multi-element assays show the copper-gold mineralisation to be associated with above-background trace elements of bismuth, nickel-cobalt and tellurium with low zinc, arsenic-antimony and tungsten.
Deflector comparison
Monger said the copper-gold mineralisation is believed to be more analogous with the Deflector copper-gold mine in the Gullewa greenstone belt (owned by Silver Lake Resources, ASX: SLR) as opposed to mines in the surrounding Mt Monger area.
It is believed to be unique to the Wombola Structural Domain, which is separated from Deflector by the Monger Shear to the east and bounded by the Monger Fault to the west.
Monger said the discovery of high-grade copper and gold could add value to Providence if enough of the mineralisation was discovered as it is a “potential extractable metal” with proven metallurgical processing options available.
Unexpected combination
Chairman Peretz Schapiro said the copper-gold combination at Providence was unexpected.
“This result pleasantly surprised us because the adjacent Silver Lake Resources operation does not contain this level of copper with gold,” he said.
“This early-stage discovery at Providence dovetails nicely with our foray into battery metals used in electric vehicles the increasing the demand for copper and lithium.”
Copper was also identified as being associated with gold in a series of rock chip samples collected in November from the Wombola and Providence prospects.
A peak gold assay of 21.83g/t was accompanied by results of 12.97g/t gold and 2.74g/t silver; 5.15g/t gold, 4.96g/t silver and 0.52% copper; and 7.32g/t gold, 11.62g/t silver and 0.75% copper.