Stavely Minerals changes tack to reach Thursday’s Gossan porphyry target
Stavely Minerals has planned an alternate drill hole to test its copper-gold target while avoiding a problematic structural zone.
Explorer Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) has designed an alternate drill hole to test a pivotal target within its Thursday’s Gossan copper-gold project in western Victoria after encountering problems in its initial attempts.
The company launched a new phase of exploration in January, initially comprising four deep (800m) diamond holes drilled in a horizontal fence pattern across the downward projection of the plunge of the Cayley Lode.
This program is based on new interpretation of the location of a causative porphyry to the high-grade copper-gold Cayley Lode mineralisation.
Two diamond drill rigs are operating with two holes, SMD 183 and SMD185, now complete.
Stavely today reported the intersection of carbonate-base metal-precious metal veining in both holes, which is typical of that observed in other holes that have been drilled under the plunge of the Cayley Lode.
The drill rig has now moved to drill SMD187, which by Stavely’s announcement on Wednesday morning was in progress at around 200m depth.
Alternate hole planned to reach pivotal target
Last month, the company reported drill hole SMD184 failed in bad ground conditions at around 400m depth with the rig being moved 25m south to re-drill the hole as SMD186.
In today’s update, Stavely reported the rods becoming bogged at around 530m with the inner tube stuck in the rods.
As of Monday, ongoing equipment issues down hole resulted in no further drill progress with the inner tube stuck in a broken core barrel just past a wedge that was placed at 519m.
Stavely has now planned a contingency hole to test the target from an east-to-west direction.
“While it is incredibly frustrating to have been drilling since mid-January to test this critical target without reaching the target zone, we have now planned a contingency drill hole to approach this target from the opposite direction and avoid this huge structural zone,” Stavely executive chair and managing director Chris Cairns said.
“While the drilling of these deep drill holes has presented some significant challenges, we have a strong belief in the technical merits of the targets we have lined up for testing and we encourage shareholders to be patient as we work to unlock the full potential of this large, well-mineralised system,” he added.
According to the company this target zone has many prospective attributes including its proximity to the intersection of north-south and northwest (Cayley Lode) structures, it sits below a significant copper-in-soil auger anomaly, and it is underlain by a discrete magnetic feature.