Victory Mines has confirmed the presence of solid grades of copper at its Bonaparte project in WA following a short, sharp drilling program, which was completed in October 2020. Results from the drilling include 4m at 1.18 per cent copper and 34.4 grams per tonne silver, hosting 1m at a stunning 3.9 per cent copper and 117 g/t silver from only 47m down-hole.
The company’s drilling program in the Kimberley consisted of ten shallow reverse circulation drill holes designed to twin a number of historical drill holes and systematically test the near-surface copper mineralisation across the Redbank prospects.
Drilling confirmed the presence of a wide envelope of copper-silver mineralisation returning the above-mentioned intercept in addition to a 26m interval grading 0.27 per cent copper and 3.1 g/t silver from only 5 m below surface.
The drilling program provides a baseline for ongoing exploration across the Bonaparte project and the extensive Redbank copper trend.
Victory’s Bonaparte project is situated in northern Western Australia’s iconic Kimberley region. The project comprises of a single granted exploration license located approximately 50km east of the port at Wyndham and covers an area of around 290 square kilometres.
The Bonaparte lease overlies a sequence of copper-bearing sediments which also host the “Redbank” copper prospects and lies a mere 30km west of Pacifico Minerals’ rapidly developing Sorby Hills lead-silver deposit.
The company’s work program at Bonaparte kicked off earlier this year and was designed to zero in on potential drill targets. Exploration included geological mapping, rock chipping, locating of old drill holes and resampling historic drill cores.
Resampling of drill cores from the historic Redbank prospects returned assays of 3.1m at 3.99 per cent copper with 80.8 g/t silver including 1.3m at 8.4 per cent copper with an impressive 181 g/t silver from 46.1m and 6.1m at 3.13 per cent copper with 6.7 g/t silver from only 3m and 12.2 metres at 2.36 per cent copper from 10.6m.
Subsequent modelling of the integrated geophysical data including gravity and electromagnetics, mapped surface anomalism and near-surface copper intercepts has outlined the Redbank base metals trend over more than 2.8km of strike. The Redbank trend has yet to be systematically tested utilising modern exploration techniques.
The company has now taken its initial steps at Bonaparte, confirming the presence of copper mineralisation, however with the onset of the wet season in Australia’s north, exploration is now on hold until the second quarter of 2021.
With the copper price now trading at over A$10,000 per tonne, Victory expects to kick into the new field season with down hole electromagnetics in April-May of next year. The electromagnetics are expected to help delineate the source of the high-grade, near surface copper mineralisation and outline sulphide lodes for drill testing later in the year.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
