Stavely Minerals moves forward with Thursday’s Gossan drilling

Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) is moving forward with a significant new phase of exploration activity at its wholly-owned Stavely copper-gold project in western Victoria following an extensive review of regional and near-resource discovery opportunities last year.

The deep drilling program at the Thursday’s Gossan prospect comprises four diamond holes in a horizontal ‘fence’ pattern across the downward plunge projection of the high-grade Cayley Lode.

Drilling is based on a new interpretation of the location of a causative porphyry to the lode’s copper-gold mineralisation.

It is progressing despite difficult ground conditions, with a pivotal hole set to be re-drilled to test a robust deep porphyry target.

The hole failed at approximately 400 metres depth, in broken ground with zones of intense clay alteration.

The rig has since been moved 25m south for re-drilling, with a number of prospective attributes including a discrete underlying magnetic feature; its proximity to the intersection of north-south and north-west (Cayley Lode) structures; and its location below a significant copper-in-soil auger anomaly.

Drilling conditions

Stavely managing director Chris Cairns said the company would persist through the drilling conditions.

“While it is disappointing to have a pivotal deep hole fail after almost a month of drilling due to challenging ground, we have a strong conviction in the merits of this target and we are currently re-drilling this hole,” he said.

“These deep drill holes have presented some 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.”

Precious metal mineralisation

The first drill hole of Stavely’s program intersected a narrow interval of carbonate-base metal believed to be precious metal mineralisation, similar to previous holes which have been completed under the plunge of the Cayley Lode.

Those holes returned results such as 5m at 2.35% zinc, 0.40% lead, 0.25% copper, 1.67 grams per tonne gold and 27g/t silver associated with rhodochrosite carbonate and reflecting a “cooler” style of mineralisation.

With the second hole having failed, the collar was shifted 25m to the south and is now being re-drilled and is currently past 200m depth.

The target of the second and fourth holes are underlain by a discrete magnetic feature proximal to the intersection of Cayley Lode and a north-south structure and below a significant copper-in-soil auger geochemical anomaly.

Stavely is currently running rods down the third drill hole to 600m following a drill bit change, with a final design depth of 800m.