On the back of high-grade tidings from its joint venture project, the drill bit is now spinning for Godolphin Resources at its Yeoval porphyry copper-gold project in NSW.
The company says the 900 metre program will feature two diamond drill holes and will aim for southern extensions to its current resource and also test for copper-gold mineralisation at depth at the Cyclops prospect where high-grade historical rock chip samples are reported.
The company’s wholly owned namesake Yeoval project is located within the highly prospective Lachlan Ford Belt and surrounds the township of Yeoval in the central west of NSW.
The explorer says the upcoming drilling campaign will target highly prospective, deep potassic zones and extend to depths not previously tested.
Interestingly, the potassic zone sits at the core of a porphyry deposit and is commonly associated with most of the ore. The mining of low-grade and large-scale deposits began with the industrial revolution and the rapid emergence of railways and steam-powered digging technology.
Consequently, now mineable porphyry deposits have been known to rocket the small companies that discover them into stardom due to the sheer quantities of contained metal.
Porphyry ore deposits hold the majority of Earth’s copper and molybdenum resources, in addition to significant amounts of other metals, including gold and silver.
The completion of work is slated for later in April, with results anticipated early in the third quarter of the year.
The company’s existing inferred mineral resource estimate stands at 12.8 million tonnes of ore grading 0.38 per cent copper, 0.14 grams per tonne gold, 2.2 g/t silver and 120 parts per million molybdenum.
Godolphin notes although anomalous copper results have been encountered in past drilling and soil sampling; no drill holes deeper than 90m have been drilled to the south of the Yeoval prospect. It says the historical drilling at Yeoval has only scratched the surface, leaving the resource open in all directions.
Similarly, a few kilometres north of Yeoval, management says the previous drilling at the Cyclops prospect is very shallow and has not tested expansive open areas at depth beneath the high-grade gold and copper rock chips found on the surface.
The first hole will be plunged into Cyclops, testing a zone that encouragingly exceeds 400 ppm copper and anomalous gold. After the first hole is complete, the rig will travel south to the Yeoval prospect and aim to build on the existing resource.
On its other front, Godolphin’s joint venture partner, ASX-listed Orange Minerals, is enthusiastically waving around some drill results it deems as excellent from the duo’s shared Calarie project, also in NSW.
The drilling in December 2021 returned a high-grade standout strike of 1m going 48.77 grams per tonne gold within a broader 21m grading 4.5 g/t gold from 34m downhole. Another high-grade intercept of 5m going 13.5 grams per tonne gold from 143m was encountered.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
15 Nov 2023
