Cooper Metals Ltd (ASX:CPM) has kicked off a reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at the Mt Isa East Project in Queensland, targeting the Raven, Mafic Sweats North, Mafic Sweats South and Yarraman prospects for copper-gold mineralisation.
The company plans to drill a total of 14 holes over 2,300 metres to follow up highly encouraging results from a 2023 drilling campaign at three of the prospects, and a maiden exploration program at Mafic Sweats North testing geophysical and geochemical targets.
Cooper is particularly interested in a thick oxide zone at the Mafic Sweats South prospect, which generated an intersection of 65 metres at 0.34% copper from surface in 2023 – the company hopes to drill beneath the oxide zone to test for a potential copper sulphide source.
Prospects ripe for copper-gold mineralisation
“Cooper is embarking on its third drill program for the year with this new program testing four exciting prospect areas including a maiden drilling program at Mafic Sweats North,” Cooper Metals managing director Ian Warland said.
“The targets are a combination of geophysical and geochemical anomalies, proximal to major structures that are ripe for concentration of copper-gold mineralisation.
“All up the drill program will take two to three weeks, with assays fast tracked through the laboratory.
“All these prospects are within 30 kilometres of Mt Isa township and easily accessible to infrastructure.”
At the Raven prospect, Cooper will test for extensions for copper-gold mineralisation identified in 2023, targeting an electromagnetic conductor modelled to be a plunging shoot extending for 100 metres to the southeast of the nearest drill hole.
An induced polarisation survey at Yarraman also identified a chargeability anomaly coincident with elevated copper soil geochemistry results along strike from more drilling in 2023.
CPM intends to drill two new holes at Yarraman to delineate the anomaly’s position.
The company expects this latest round of drilling to take about three weeks, with assays placed on priority through the Mt Isa laboratory so that results can be delivered as soon as possible.