Legend goes deep in Octagonal copper search
Legend Mining has launched a high-power fixed loop electromagnetics survey to identify conductors below 600m at its Octagonal prospect that forms part of its greater Rockford project in Western Australia’s Fraser Range.
Data from the survey, including structural analysis of four completed diamond drillholes sunk at the site, will be used to plan a future diamond drilling campaign at the operation.
The company says forward modelling from the survey design suggests large sulphide accumulations should be detectable below a depth of 600m, with the large-loop, high-current and ultra-low frequency parameters of the purpose-designed survey.
Legend says a detailed structural logging campaign is nearing completion on its four completed diamond drillholes, which it expects will give new lithological and structural context critical to the understanding of the Octagonal Intrusive Complex (OIC). Coupled with the new datasets, it will add to the existing foundation data to evolve the targeting model across the OIC.
The survey and associated modelling is expected to be completed within five weeks. Management says it identified visual sulphides at regular intervals between 848m and 1661m in a recent diamond drillhole that ran to a depth of 1700m.
Octagonal is one of a swag of priority prospects at Legend’s flagship Rockford project, which covers more than 3000 square kilometres within the celebrated Fraser Range, about 250km east of Kalgoorlie. The company believes the mineralisation identified at the prospect so far demonstrates all the characteristics of a fertile magmatic nickel-copper sulphide system.
Legend Mining executive chair Mark Wilson said: “This new high power fixed loop EM survey is designed to identify conductors below 600m. The results of this survey, along with interpretation of all data sets from Octagonal, is expected to deliver the next targets for diamond drilling at this prospect.”
In February, Legend tabled a maiden nickel-copper-cobalt mineral resource at its Mawson deposit at Rockford, clocking in at 1.45 million tonnes at 1.14 per cent nickel, 0.74 per cent copper and 0.07 per cent cobalt for 16,500 tonnes of nickel, 10,600 tonnes of copper and 1100 tonnes of cobalt.
Management believes its initial estimate at Mawson still has plenty of room to grow, with no bounds to the mineralised envelope and the main source yet to be discovered. The company previously noted that Octagonal shows characteristics similar to the productive Nova-Bollinger and Silver Knight deposits that are housed along the same structural trend in the Albany-Fraser Belt.
IGO’s Nova-Bollinger deposit holds 11.8 million tonnes averaging 1.76 per cent nickel, 0.71 percent copper and 0.06 per cent cobalt.
While copper prices recently dropped to their lowest price since March, the potential of a significant deposit being identified at depth to complement its Mawson prospect could put Legend in the driver’s seat if the reddish metal springs back to popularity – as many global analysts predict.
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