Mineral explorer Emu NL has kicked up a collection of intriguing rocks during a maiden first foray into its Georgetown project in Queensland, returning a staggering 18 per cent copper, 35.4 ounces silver and 26 per cent lead.
They are compelling numbers by any measure.
Late last year, the company secured the right to earn up to 80 per cent of a trio of exploration permits – Firey Creek, Georgetown and Perpendicular Creek - covering 850 square kilometres in the Georgetown mining district under a heads of agreement deal with TSXV-listed Rugby Resources.
Key terms of the deal will see Emu earn a 50 per cent interest by spending $750,000 in exploration or development expenditure and another 30 per cent slice for a further spend of $1.1 million.
While gold has been the traditional focus for the region, the tenements are also prospective for base and battery metals including lithium, silver, lead, zinc, copper, tin and uranium.
Emu NL chief excecutive officer Doug Grewar said: “The discovery of an extensive copper system, high-grade silver -ead values from two highly-mineralised areas and significant pegmatite vein prospects will give Emu investors hope for substantial reward should success continue to flow from this project in the coming months. An extensive new copper system find at Fiery Creek also begs urgent follow -up.”
At Firey Creek, the company put boots on a compelling circular geophysical anomaly outlining the Yataga Granodiorite and discovered swarms of north-south-trending sub-vertical quartz breccia veins with extensive secondary copper mineralisation, including malachite, chrysocolla, azurite, covellite and chalcocite.
A smattering of small pits and rock piles allude to scratchings by the old-timers during the gold rush at the turn of the 19th century. Interestingly, no modern exploration has been recorded.
From a suite of 36 rock-chip samples collected from the area, more than 50 per cent returned grades of greater than 1 per cent copper, peaking at 18 per cent. Significant silver was also discovered, grading up to 6.4 ounces per tonne.
The company also mapped and sampled a 50m-wide, 2km-long pegmatite in the south of the Firey Creek tenement. Assays are still outstanding. Interestingly, the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines reports the Georgetown mining district as having “untested potential” for significant lithium resources.
The emerging province was first brought to light in 2019 by private company Strategic Metals Australia after it unveiled a significant lithium discovery at Buchanan’s Creek. Strategic Metals draws similarities between its find and ASX-listed Infinity Lithium Corporation’s 75-per cent-owned San Jose project in Spain that is hailed as containing the European Union’s second-biggest hard-rock lithium deposit of 111.3 million tonnes at 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.
Nearby on the Perpendicular Creek permit, Emu says evidence of historic workings at the Snake Creek prospect was apparent in the form of shallow trenches aligned along an east-west-trending shear zone in rhyolitic host rocks. The company noted fresh veins of sulphides, including pyrite and galena, in the interpreted ore zone with rock chips returning lead grades of up to 26.1 per cent and silver values tipping the scales at 35.4 ounces per tonne.
Distracted by the abundance of base metals, Emu is eager to chase up several priority gold targets, noting significant gold values in historic rock-chip sampling at the Munitions Creek prospect.
One of Australia’s biggest-ever producing gold mines, Kidston, lies just 90km south-east of Georgetown’s centre. Discovered in 1907, the Kidston mine produced 5.1 million ounces of gold in the 16 years between 1985 and 2001.
With just 10 per cent of assays returned from Emu’s maiden field trip to the Georgetown district, management has already racked up a pipeline of compelling targets. As the company looks to lace up boots again with another field trip planned before year’s end, market pundits will be keen to see what other treasures it can kick up.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Helen Barling
