Stavely Minerals unearths ‘monster’ copper-gold hit at Cayley Lode
Stavely Minerals is now in the final phase of its resource definition drilling program with a maiden resource estimate expected in the second quarter.
Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) has unearthed what it describes as a “monster” copper-gold hit at the Cayley Lode within its Thursday’s Gossan prospect at the company’s namesake project in Victoria.
Diamond drilling has uncovered 87m at 1.74% copper, 0.57 grams per tonne gold and 20g/t silver from 140m.
Within this broad intercept are higher grade intervals such as 24m at 4.19m copper, 1.27g/t gold and 53g/t silver; 0.8m at 24.1% copper, 1.16g/t gold and 249g/t silver; and 1m at 1.30% copper, 10.05g/t gold and 48g/t silver.
Meanwhile, another diamond drill hole has confirmed the Cayley Lode extends at least 1.5km along strike with mineralisation remaining open in both directions and down dip.
This drill hole returned 23m at 1.07% copper and 0.11g/t gold from 339m, including 1m at 9.44% copper, 0.22g/t gold and 6.4g/t silver.
Cayley Lode resource due this year
Resource drilling at the Cayley Lode is now more than 50% complete, with Stavely targeting a maiden resource for the second half of the year. Four rigs are currently operating on site.
Stavely executive chairman Chris Cairns said the company continued to be “surprised” by the “incredible consistency” and continuity of mineralisation in the Cayley Lode.
“Due to the large overall interval of strong copper, gold and silver mineralisation in SMD087 and the significant gold grades in the high-grade sub-intervals, we consider this intercept to be on par with the assays from the discovery drill hole SMD050.”
Mr Cairns added that intercepts at the respective extremities of the currently defined Cayley Lode were below the low-angle structure indicating mineralisation will continue to similar depths as mineralisation on the north-south structure where holes have been drilled to greater than 900m deep.
“It is fair to say that we continue to be amazed by the scale of this mineral system and we may have to contemplate an acceleration of our drilling program to define the full extent of the Cayley Lode and other mineralised structures including the Copper Lode Splay and the north-south structure,” Mr Cairns noted.
“Generally speaking, the deposit is behaving exactly as we had hoped – with the resource drill-out now well advanced and generating some excellent data that will feed into our maiden JORC mineral resource estimate later this year,” he said.