Following completion of a magnetic survey, Carnaby Resources has confirmed the presence of a big conductive plate at its San Quentin prospect, part of the Greater Duchess joint venture (JV) area it shares with ASX-listed Latitude 66 in Queensland.
The conductor lies directly beneath recently tested sub-cropping material running up to 6.7 per cent copper and sits 2km to the south of the 4.2 million-tonne, 1.3 per cent Nil Desperandum copper discovery.
With 194km of aerial surveying now in the bag, Carnaby’s versatile time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) study has uncovered multiple high-potential conductors across a big area and across numerous new undrilled spots within its tenements.
Importantly, only four of the conductors—Mount Hope Central, South Hope, Mohawk and Nil Desperandum—have been drilled and all hit mineralisation, raising the tantalising prospect of the newly found conductors, including San Quentin, potentially being just as loaded.
Any positive VTEM readings confirmed by drilling going forward will become a reliable compass for new discoveries.
Carnaby Resources managing director Rob Watkins said: “Clearly the VTEM results from the Mount Hope and Nil Desperandum region surveys have generated multiple new outstanding undrilled targets. With a 100% success rate of lighting up high-grade copper gold mineralisation and resulting in the direct discovery of Mohawk, the VTEM is an exceptional geophysical tool vectoring us directly to core zones of mineralisation. We look forward to advancing and completing first pass drilling programs on the numerous new undrilled VTEM anomalies that have been defined.”
Although the magnetics spotlighted a 4-kilometre-long stretch at the Mohawk North corridor, which is 100 per cent owned by Carnaby, the real star of the show appears to be San Quentin.
Initial exploration has already uncovered 800m of exposed copper mineralisation, including the earlier reported copper rock chips going 6.7 per cent. However the kicker here is that the area has never been drilled, making it a prime target for future exploration.
Modelling, heritage surveys and reconnaissance are already underway and preparations for the next drilling phase, set to kick off in November, have begun.
A week ago, the JV also revealed results from recent drilling at the Burke & Wills, Deejay and Jude prospects within Greater Duchess, all of which are 17.5 per cent owned by Latitude 66.
Drilling at Burke & Wills, which sits close to the 2.7-million-tonne Lady Fanny deposit, has already intercepted 13m at 2.7 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold, extending the mineralised zone to 300m and adding to the current 400,000-tonne satellite resource grading 2.2 per cent copper.
At Deejay and Jude, four reverse-circulation (RC) holes yielded assay results 33-250 per cent higher than initial portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) estimates. A key intercept at Deejay hit 15m at one per cent copper and 0.2g/t gold from 31m. Another hole at Jude returned 2m at 3.7 per cent copper and 0.4g/t gold from 45m.
Further electromagnetic (EM) work and drilling at site is now planned.
Another area that remains highly prospective is the 1.3km corridor from Deejay to Spring Creek, with large-scale copper-gold potential and only five holes drilled so far.
With 3200 samples across the Greater Duchess area still waiting to come in and new drilling due to kick off in two weeks’, the JV is heading for a busy period running into Christmas. With so many new undrilled targets, it appears that Carnaby and Lattitude 66 have really only just scratched the surface.
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By James Pearson
