Active junior explorer, Native Mineral Resources has added some exciting greenfields copper, gold and nickel targets to its WA and Queensland copper-gold portfolio after a successful bid for ground in the WA Nullarbor region. The company is aiming to get boots on the ground and commence fieldwork as soon as the tenements are granted.
The application for about 274sq.km of ground in south-eastern WA that is thought to be prospective for Nova-Bollinger-type nickel-copper deposits and Olympic Dam-style copper-gold, follows the recent release of WA government-funded magnetotelluric, or “MT” geophysical and seismic survey data. The regional-scale survey data is said to highlight targets that will be prioritised by the company in its initial exploration planning.
Management says the MT and seismic data will give it a basis to fast-track first-pass activity including higher-resolution geophysics.
The company is already busy drilling at its Music Well gold project in WA’s eastern goldfields and preparing for follow-up activity at its promising Palmerville copper-gold property in north Queensland.
The Nullarbor area under application will add to Native Mineral’s existing massive WA and Queensland tenure that covers some 2,660sq.km.
Native Mineral Resources Managing Director, Blake Cannavo said: “Following the release of new geophysical datasets from a recently completed government study, this area has been keenly contested and we are pleased to secure this footprint. Pending the granting of these tenements our technical team has already commenced planning our initial exploration programs for the Nullarbor, with a particular focus on the targets above the MT anomaly which point to similarities with the Olympic Dam Fingers of God.”
The Olympic Dam Fingers of God reference relates to Gawler Craton iron-oxide, copper and gold, or “IOCG” mineral source structures at one of the world’s largest copper-uranium-gold-silver deposits in South Australia where mining major BHP operates a world class underground mine and processing operation.
So-called Fingers of God conductivity pathways that point to the Olympic Dam mega-deposit were originally recognised by MT surveys.
Native Minerals says two tenement blocks in the Nullarbor land release overlay coincident gravity and magnetic anomalies where MT data highlights “a distinctive zone of relatively low resistivity beneath the target area, similar to the Fingers of God anomaly found beneath Olympic Dam”.
According to the company, in one of those areas, an examination of survey data also points to geophysical traits that are reminiscent of the impressive Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper deposit in the adjacent Fraser Range region now being mined by IGO Ltd.
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By Matt Birney
