Caspin Resources Ltd (ASX:CPN) is a new mineral exploration company based in Perth, Western Australia.
CEO Greg Miles calls the company a proudly West Australian company that likes to play on its home ground, to use a cricketing analogy, where ‘you know how the pitch feels’. It’s about risk management, and part of that is playing to your strengths.
One of the strengths Miles is talking about is deploying a small but highly skilled team that specialises in early-stage exploration and development to prospect for nickel, copper, platinum group elements (PGE) and, more recently, lithium, across the company’s large landholdings in one of Australia’s last mineral exploration frontiers.
Caspin is actively exploring at its flagship asset, the Yarawindah Brook Project, in the West Yilgarn province, for PGE, nickel and copper.
Minerals on Perth's doorstep
Yarawindah can be found practically on the doorstep of urban Perth, on the boundary of Chalice Mining’s fabled Julimar Project, a great success story over the last few years.
Recent drilling campaigns at Yarabrook Hill have made new discoveries of PGE, nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation. The company is also in the business of bringing new targets to drill readiness by collecting geophysical and geochemical data across the project.
And Caspin has another project up its sleeve. It is exploring at the Mount Squires Project in the West Musgrave region, one of Australia’s last mineral exploration frontiers.
The company has positioned itself just along strike from where BHP (ASX:BHP) is building Australia’s next big nickel-copper mine. It is engaged in some early-stage exploration and getting promising results.
Caspin has the first mover land package of just under 1,000 square kilometres, along strike from BHP’s $2 billion development that’s underway.
At Mount Squires, Caspin has hit upon a more-than-40-kilometre structural corridor boasting gold mineralisation as well as a 17-kilometre extension of the West Musgrave nickel-copper corridor which hosts the One Tree Hill Prospect and Nebo-Babel Deposits along strike.
Caspin is busy on the ground conducting soil sampling, geophysics and reconnaissance drilling along both mineralisation trends.
Lithium potential
The most substantial lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite deposit globally is Greenbushes mine (360 million tonnes at 1.5% lithium oxide), just three hours south of Perth.
The Yarawindah Brook Project can be found in the same geological area, the Southwest Yilgarn, and is characterised by Neoarchean greenstone belts interspersed with felsic granitic intrusions.
Past exploration in this region has identified the presence of granites rich in metals like lithium, tin and tantalum.
These granites are encircled by multiple northwest-oriented shear zones and east-west faults, potentially serving as conduits for mineral deposition within the surrounding greenstone.
Caspin has gathered more than 5,000 soil samples from Yarawindah Brook, with preliminary results showing a marked LCT pegmatite element association, particularly west of the Brassica Shear Zone.
The company has formulated a ‘LCT pegmatite index’ by amalgamating key lithium indicator elements. Peak soil values recorded include 80 parts per million (ppm) lithium, 61ppm niobium, 24ppm tin, 12ppm tantalum and 102ppm tungsten, indicating concentrations two to 10 times the typical background levels.
This soil geochemistry is enhanced by comprehensive geophysical, radiometric and remote sensing data.
Nickel-copper prospecting
The Mount Squires Project encompasses a 17-kilometre stretch of mafic rocks, including Giles-complex intrusions, extending from the West Musgrave Project at its eastern boundary.
The company has applied ultra-fine fraction (UFF) soil geochemistry and airborne electromagnetic (AEM) methods for initial exploration of this corridor.
UFF soil geochemistry has proven highly effective in identifying new anomalies under shallow sand cover. This effectiveness is evidenced by copper mineralisation discovered in minor rock outcrops at the Sienna Prospect.
It's notable that nearby Nebo and Succoth deposits (around 1 million tonnes of contained copper) have no surface outcrops, lying under shallow sand.
Similarly, the Babel Deposit has a minimal subcrop of about 5 square metres, showing malachite presence.
This tells us that any surface indication of mineralisation in this region is quite promising.
A major rare earth discovery
The company has discovered rare earth element (REE) mineralisation at the Duchess Prospect, following drilling of a broad multi-element soil geochemical anomaly.
Drilling phases have yielded substantial intersections, such as 27 metres at 0.70% total rare earth oxides (TREO) including a high-grade zone of 12 metres at 1.15% TREO. This includes notable concentrations of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.
The mineralisation is volcanic-hosted, hydrothermal in nature and unique within Australia.
The substantial presence of heavy rare earth elements (HREE), such as dysprosium and terbium, is particularly significant due to their higher value compared to light rare earth elements (LREE) like neodymium and praseodymium.
The company notes that the ratio of HREE to LREE varies greatly, from 23% to as high as 73%.
Let's not forget gold
Gold was first discovered in 2008 at the Handpump prospect through reconnaissance drilling of a soil lag anomaly.
Subsequent drilling phases have returned notable results, including 43 metres at 1.18 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, with a high-grade section of 9 metres at 3.25 g/t gold. Mineralisation has been observed in quartz-breccia at the surface.
The Handpump prospect is along a 40-kilometre north-south structural trend on the project's western flank.
This trend includes additional soil geochemical anomalies, like the Regal prospect at the project's southern edge, which is a high-priority target for further exploration.