Neometals strikes bonanza copper at forgotten Murchison mine

Neometals Ltd has unearthed a fresh copper hotspot at its fully-owned Barrambie gold project in the Barrambie Greenstone Belt near Sandstone in WA’s East Murchison goldfield. 

Recent surface rock-chip and grab sampling has confirmed high-grade copper up to a whopping 24.4 per cent at the project’s historic Rinaldi workings.

Historic production at Rinaldi in 1944 and between 1956 and 1961 churned out 1407 tonnes at 9.8 per cent copper for about 138 tonnes of contained copper metal from shallow open pits and underground mining to 30m depth. 

Mineralisation is hosted in 1 metre to 4 metre thick laminated quartz veins within the Barrambie Sill’s gabbro and schist rocks. It includes malachite and azurite copper carbonates, chrysocolla copper silicate and the copper iron-sulphide bornite in stringers and veinlets. Bornite can contain up to 63 per cent copper and is a major copper ore mineral.

Late last year, Neometals’ geos and Perth-based exploration services company NEWEXCO collected 13 mullock grab and outcrop rock-chip samples from around the old Rinaldi workings. 

Results confirmed the presence of bonanza-grade copper far in excess of historically reported averages, combined with strong gold and silver credits in places.

While the top sample clocked in at 24.4 per cent copper, the next best result was 22.5 per cent copper, accompanied by 2.10 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 51.3g/t silver.

Four other samples delivered copper in the range of 5.4 to 9.5 per cent copper, with accompanying gold responses ranging from 0.26g/t to 0.53g/t in three of the four samples. These samples also gave up silver hits in the range of 45.9g/t to 65g/t.

Neometals Limited managing director Chris Reed said: “Rinaldi is an outstanding target area compared to other copper occurrences within the Barrambie Greenstone and adjacent belts and presents Neometals with an exciting opportunity to investigate the potential for high-grade copper mineralisation.”

The high copper grades strongly hint at untapped potential in the vein system and possible extensions along the broader belt.

Neometals’ next steps will include initial reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Rinaldi to test around the mapped historic copper-rich veining for primary sulphide potential and to guide further work on the copper potential.

On the gold front, Neometals is refining plans for follow-up work at some of Barrambie’s other priority prospects, including initial RC drilling at its Kismet, Woodies and Silver Lining targets. 

Elsewhere, at its more advanced Ironclad deposit, the company’s update to its inferred mineral resource estimate and mine plan is progressing, with results due later this quarter, alongside geotechnical, metallurgical, hydrological and environmental studies to support mining approvals.

The company’s 505-square-kilometre Barrambie tenure covers about 40km of prospective strike along the greenstone belt, which has seen little modern gold exploration since the 1990’s, despite historic high-grade production averaging 24.8g/t gold. 

Neometals has estimated that its Barrambie ground could potentially host an Exploration Target in the range of 8 to 10.5 million tonnes at a grade of between 1.3–2.3g/t gold for 335,000 to 775,000 ounces of gold, which emphasises the project’s possible gold-camp scale.

With copper adding sparkle to Barrambie’s gold story as a welcome twist, upcoming drilling results from Rinaldi could unlock another layer in this underexplored greenstone gem. 

And as Ironclad advances towards production, Neometals' new dual-commodity play is shaping up as an increasingly compelling proposition.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au