Resource Base commences geophysical surveys at Black Range copper-gold project

Resource Base (ASX: RBX) has kicked off a large-scale geophysical survey program at its Black Range copper-gold-base metals project along northwest Victoria’s highly-prospective Stavely volcanic corridor.

The four week program has been designed to test a priority target area between the Eclipse and New Moon prospects characterised by a 4km strike of defined volcanic graben which is host to Eclipse.

It will include an induced polarisation/resistivity survey (IP/Res) over most of the target area which has not been tested by past surveys with the aim of producing consistent coverage of data across the extent of the interpreted volcanic graben to a depth of at least 500m.

The data will be used to create a 3D model from which interpretations of the distribution of sub-surface geological units and hydrothermal alteration (potentially associated with volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide mineralisation, or VHMS) can be made.

Ground gravity survey

A ground gravity survey will also be completed to accurately place any gravity disparities within the volcanic host rock sequence.

Resource Base will create a separate 3D model of gravity distributions which will then integrate with the IP/Res model and available historic drilling data to help define targets for an inaugural drilling program at Black Range, expected to commence later this year.

Drilling will be carried out at initial target areas across the broader tenement following further geophysical programs.

Big achievement

Executive chairman and chief executive officer Shannon Green said the commencement of geophysical work was a big achievement for the company.

“We are excited to be commencing our aggressive exploration plans at Black Range [and] we look forward to using the [geophysical] results to establish a set of initial drill targets for our priority target area between Eclipse and New Moon,” he said.

VHMS target district

The Black Range project is located in the Mount Stavely Volcanic Complex (MSVC), which is known as Victoria’s premier porphyry and VHMS target district.

It captures three fault-bound segments of the MSVC volcanics with a combined strike length of approximately 55km and includes the advanced Eclipse prospect which is prospective for copper, gold and zinc.

Targets including Anomaly F, Honeysuckle, Anomaly K and Mt Bepcha are also associated with MSVC rocks across the tenement but have seen little work to date.

The MSVC is considered an analogue of the Mt Read Volcanics in Tasmania, which is host to a number of world-class VHMS discoveries (including Rosebery, Hellyer and Que River), as well as the giant Mt Lyell copper-gold and Henty gold deposit.

Petrological studies indicate that important VHMS-style hydrothermal alteration is well developed on the Eclipse prospect.

Mr Green said Resource Base would utilise systematic geophysics, drilling and geochemical analyses combined with petrological and hyperspectral SWIR (short-wave infrared) alteration mapping to vector towards zones with high mineralisation potential as identified from comparisons to known VHMS deposits in the Mt Read Volcanics and worldwide.