Javelin Minerals has kicked off maiden drilling at its brownfields Coogee gold-copper project near Kambalda where it is looking to drill test a curious magnetic anomaly discovered near an old open pit.
Notably, the drilling contractor, Topdrill, will accept shares in Javelin instead of cash for its drilling work that involves a two-phase reverse circulation (RC) program. The work will be overseen by Peter Langworthy from the geological consultancy group, OmniGeoX.
The initial phase involves 2500m of drilling down to a depth of between 70m and 275m and will focus on five priority areas to test depth extensions, magnetic anomalies and structural trends. The work will take three weeks to finish and the results are expected to start rolling in by early January.
The rig will start at the main Coogee deposit and test for depth extensions of gold-copper mineralisation below the existing old open pit before moving to Coogee North, which lies 350m further north.
The program was designed to look out for gold-copper mineralisation between the main pit and the Coogee North prospect, which currently hosts 96,036 ounces of gold resources grading 1.01 grams per tonne (g/t) and 4122 tonnes of copper grading 0.41 per cent.
It will also investigate a strong magnetic anomaly—dubbed a “Bullseye” target—300m north of the pit.
With 1650m out of the 2500m of total drilling earmarked for the “infill” area between the pit and Coogee North, it would seem management has high hopes of expanding the size and grade of the overall resource.
The rig will then push two RC holes into a shear zone called Coogee Northwest that runs parallel to the main Coogee Shear to look for repeats of the central pit discovery. From there, the rig will attack the Coogee South prospect to follow up on historical air-core drilling that revealed shallow gold deposits.
The drill bit for the second phase will start turning in late January after the results of phase one are interpreted.
The new work will also push into deeper drilling of an untested magnetic anomaly at the Coogee West target, 1.5km west of the old Coogee pit, which shows strong potential for high-order gold-copper deposits. The anomaly starts from 300 vertical metres, extending to 1km deep and the company regards it as a high-priority because of its high magnetic signature.
Javelin Minerals executive chairman Brett Mitchell said: “Brownfields exploration in WA has created substantial wealth for investors in recent times and we believe Coogee has the potential to join this list of success stories. We have identified several compelling targets, and we know the mineralisation remains open.”
Sitting in a highly prospective greenstone belt, the Coogee project area is surrounded by significant gold deposits, including Silver Lake’s 400,000-ounce Salt Creek mine, the Daisy-Milano mine and the Gold Field Ltd-controlled St Ives gold camp.
Javelin’s total gold-copper inventory at the broader Coogee project currently stands at 3.65 million tonnes at 1.08g/t gold for 126,685 ounces and 1.01mt at 0.41 per cent copper for 4133t of copper.
The company is developing its theory of more near mine riches that were left behind when Coogee was previously mined some years ago and it would appear to have a solid suite of geological indicators supporting that thought.
The same “near-mine” strategy recently brought enormous rewards for neighbouring ASX-listed companies Spectrum Metals and Spartan Resources, both of which found multi-million-dollar gold deposits lurking just north of their old open pits.
Spectrum Metals discovered a 355,000-ounce deposit at Penny North grading 13.8g/t in 2019 sitting just 300m from the old Penny West open pit.
Similarly, 300m north of its old mined out pit, Spartan Resources recently discovered a 721,000-ounce gold resource at its Never Never project in WA with grades of 5.85g/t.
With a series of high-priority drill targets and a history of recent success in the neighbourhood, there is plenty of potential for Javelin to substantially increase the overall resource at its Coogee project and who knows – it just might manage to emulate the success of Spartan and Spectrum.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By James Pearson
