QMines gets ready to drill third VHMS deposit at Mt Chalmers copper-gold project
QMines plans to despatch new diamond drill core for assay by the end of the week.
QMines (ASX: QML) has confirmed that the Mt Warminster volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) exploration target, northwest of its flagship Mt Chalmers copper-gold project, is ready for drilling.
The target represents the third VHMS deposit to be drilled at Mt Chalmers as the company works towards adding more tonnes to the project’s global resource, which currently sits at 11.3 million tonnes grading 0.76% copper, 0.42 grams per tonne gold, 4.52g/t silver, 0.22% zinc and 0.08% lead for 85,600t copper, 153,240 ounces gold, 1.6 million ounces silver, 24,400t zinc and 9,600t of lead.
The resource was upgraded last month, which included a 44% increase to contained metal.
EM response
Recent acquisition and modelling of historical geophysical data collected during a VTEM (versatile time domain electromagnetic) survey at the Mt Chalmers area revealed a notable electromagnetic response at Mt Warminster.
QMines said it would investigate coincident copper-zinc geochemical anomalies where historical exploration by Geopeko in the late 1970s had intersected shallow base metal mineralisation.
Of a total 56 historical holes drilled, 25 of them returned significant intercepts and 15 had results of over 1% base metals (principally zinc with lesser occurrences of lead, copper and silver).
Intercepts from two infill holes included 12m at 2.1% zinc from 24m; 15m at 1.9% zinc from 12m; 3m at 3.0% zinc from 15m; and 18m at 0.7% copper, 0.2% lead, 0.6% zinc and 14g/t silver.
The mineralisation is believed to form a gently dipping tabular body of largely disseminated base metal sulphides incorporating semi-massive sulphide pods.
This geometry, together with the dominant zinc-lead signature, is interpreted to be the distal apron of a VHMS system.
QMines said VTEM anomalies to the immediate west may vector towards increased massive sulphides in that direction.
The company is preparing to drill both infill holes to classify a resource, as well as step-out holes in the search for massive sulphides.
Mt Warminster exploration target
Based on historical drilling results, the Mt Warminster target was modelled by an independent geologist in late-2021 as measuring 500m in strike and up to 350m in width with a thickness ranging from 6m to 40m.
Using a 1% zinc equivalent cut-off, the modelling estimated an exploration target of between 1.5Mt and 1.8Mt grading up to 0.7% zinc, up to 0.2% copper, between 0.25% and 0.35% lead and up to 12g/t silver.
Drilling is expected to resume at the south of the Mt Chalmers resource in January and then at Mt Warminster following the acquisition of an airborne VTEM Max survey.