RareX hits mineralisation in first hole in Lachlan Fold Belt gold-copper project
Initial drilling at Trundle Park in NSW has intersected multiple mineralised zones, significantly expanding the target’s prospectivity and scale.
RareX (ASX: REE) reports the drilling of the first hole at the Trundle Park target within the Trundle project in New South Wales has intersected multiple mineralised zones including a shallow 28m zone starting 55m from surface.
RareX recently carried out a partial sale of the project to Kincora Copper, listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange, and retains a free carried 35% interest. The Australian company now owns 9.9% of Kincora.
RareX was originally primarily focused on rare earths but has since diversified into NSW copper-gold.
Earlier this month, the company announced it has regained 100% control of another Lachlan Fold Belt project, the Orange East gold deposit.
Kincora has advised RareX that the Trundle Park hole confirms the targeted setting of skarn and adjacent porphyry intrusion, comparable to Newcrest Mining’s (ASX: NCM) Cadia deposit and “multiple other world-class porphyries”.
Trundle Park is the only brownfield project held by a listed junior in what RareX calls “Australia’s foremost porphyry belt”. It lies within the same mineralised complex as the Northparkes copper-gold project, 30km away and owned by China Molybdenum.
Modern technology follows up earlier drilling
Past exploration drilling at Trundle Park has been extensive with 2,208 holes drilled over 61,146m, but deeper drilling into the basement using modern exploration knowledge has been very limited, the company said.
More than 90% of earlier drilling had gone down less than 50m, with just 0.5% of holes reaching beyond 300m.
Kincora Copper has advised RareX of the indicators seen from the first hole.
“While early days in our ongoing drilling program, and awaiting assay results, multiple noteworthy developments have been achieved from the first hole at Trundle Park,” the Canadian company stated.
The zones of moderate to higher grade mineralised skarn intersected are thicker than expected and indicate the possibility of a primary orebody, it said.
“The visual results of this hole confirm our exploration model and significantly increases both the scale and prospectivity of Trundle Park, with multiple large targets for follow up,” Kincora added.
Historic drilling hit high grade gold, copper
Previous assay results at Trundle Park — where average depth of drilling was only 28m — included 2m at 20 grams per tonne gold, 6.97% copper and 81g/t silver from a depth of 64m.
RareX said the setting is analogous to the huge Cadia structure near Orange, NSW, where the Big Cadia and Little Cadia skarns were mined and were important to the discovery of multiple adjacent deposits that have made the Lachlan Fold Belt an exploration drawcard.
Meanwhile, Kincora has begun drilling at the Mordialloc target, 12.5km north of Trundle Park, where previous drilling has returned metal grades comparable to those found on the periphery of the Northparkes deposits.