GreenTech Metals has ramped up the copper-zinc-gold hunt at its Whundo project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region after appointing experienced mining executive Julian Hanna as a technical advisor.
The company says Hanna will bring 35 years’ worth of experience in the discovery, early development stages and corporate management of significant copper, nickel and gold deposits and their associated companies. The appointment comes on the back of a recent 1743m drilling program at Whundo that intercepted multiple sections of thick copper-zinc zones below six shoots at the project.
The latest drill results point to significant resource expansion potential at Whundo following a high-level review in early May that revealed potential within or close to the cluster of volcanogenic massive-sulphide (VMS)-style copper-zinc deposits.
Hanna was the co-founder and managing director of nickel miner Western Areas, which listed on the ASX in mid-2000 and opened its first day of trading with a share price of 19c. In December 2021, major Aussie miner IGO acquired 100 per cent of Western Areas and in doing so added to its portfolio some of the highest-grade nickel mines in Australia.
The acquisition was via a scheme implementation deed (SID) for $3.36 for each Western Areas share, valuing the company at $1.096 billion.
Then in 2013, Hanna joined copper explorer MOD Resources as managing director. The company established a regional-scale exploration licence in Botswana’s thinly-explored Kalahari Copper Belt and had significant early exploration success with the discovery of its T3 and T4 copper-silver deposits.
MOD advanced its T3 development – about 70km from the town of Ghanzi – to the feasibility study stage before Sandfire Resources acquired it for $167 million in late 2019. Sandfire went on to develop T3 as the Motheo project into a more than 5 million tonnes per year open-pit operation, with a mine life of about 10 years.
Hanna says he sees considerable growth potential in the immediate vicinity of the Whundo-to-Ayshia open-pit trend that could comprise possible depth extensions and even repetitions, including between known shoots. He also envisages additional potential in Whundo’s immediate surrounds, both along strike off each end of the known trend and east and west off the main line of strike.
GreenTech Metals executive director Tom Reddicliffe said: “We are thrilled to welcome Julian to the team, who will add significant value to the Company through his experience in discovering and developing significant mineral deposits. Julian has a reputation for identifying quality exploration targets, which have resulted in the successful development of producing mines, returning significant value for shareholders.”
Whundo has six known mineralised shoots that typically plunge to the north-west at between 30 and 40 degrees. It comprises the Whundo East, Whundo West, Austin, Shelby, Yannery and Ayshia deposits that are in various stages of understanding and/or development along a generally north-east-trending zone of about 1.5km.
An additional combined 2km of the prospective zone remains open to both the west and the east of the known mineralisation inside the company’s ground.
Management is adamant that the separate deposits or shoots, with their close spatial relationships, common plunge directions and similar thicknesses, could be interpreted as comprising multiple elements of a single big body related to a deeper-seated VMS-style event that remains open along strike and at depth.
GreenTech says its recent program was the first of a two-part campaign at Whundo that is exploring for interpreted extensions of the multiple copper-zinc mineralised shoots directed towards outlining a significant increase in the project’s current combined (Whundo and Ayshia) 6.2 million-tonne resource.
The company says planning is in hand for its stage-two drilling to continue the search and to test the depth potential at Austin, Shelby, Yannery and Ayshia.
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By Doug Bright
