Zenith Minerals reports strong copper drill results at Develin Creek
Zenith Minerals confirms high-grade copper and zinc zones at the Sulphide City prospect in Queensland.
Diversified explorer Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC) reports an initial three-hole diamond drill program at its Develin Creek project in Queensland has confirmed high-grade copper and zinc zones with gold and silver in massive sulphides.
The holes were completed at the Sulphide City prospect at the northern end of the project area, which extends 50km south of this drilling.
The results included Hole 002 which returned 29m at 2.3% copper, 1.2% zinc, 0.3 grams per tonne gold and 4.2g/t silver.
Assays from Hole 003 showed 34m at 2% copper, 1.5% zinc, 0.2g/t gold and 4.9g/t silver.
Both holes included higher-grade intervals of 12.3m and 10m, respectively.
More drilling needed to confirm higher grades
Zenith said the results point toward a potential increase in copper grades although more drilling is required to test the rest of the deposit.
The current drilling is part of a broader plan to build upon the JORC resource at Sulphide City and add others to the Develin Creek copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) inventory.
Located 80km north‐west of Rockhampton in Central Queensland, the Develin Creek base metals project is described by the company as hosting several copper-zinc-gold-silver VMS deposits and covers an extensive belt of underexplored prospective host rocks.
Mineralisation comprises massive sulphide, stringer and breccia style copper-zinc-gold-silver deposits, hosted by basalts.
Zenith said its deposits are of a style similar to those currently being mined by Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) at DeGrussa and Independence Group (ASX: IGO) at Jaguar-Bentley in Western Australia.
Potential to expand resource
Commenting on these latest drill results, Zenith chairman Peter Bird said the purpose of this short program was to validate mineralisation within the existing resource at Sulphide City.
This has now been achieved, but he said given the strong and much higher grades in the two new holes, there is the potential to expand upon what is already defined.
“More drilling and the recent geophysical targeting will both be valuable contributors to the process,” Mr Bird added.
Flanagans sale
Late last month, Zenith announced it would divest its Flanagans copper-gold project in Queensland.
Unlisted Bindi Metals will pay $450,000 for the tenement which is located 70km northeast of Zenith’s Red Mountain gold project.
The sale is conditional on Bindi completing an initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the ASX by the end of the year, with the sale price bring broken into $200,000 cash and the balance in Bindi shares.