FireFly Metals Ltd (ASX:FFM) is trading higher after the latest assays from the Green Bay Copper-Gold Project in Canada revealed that consistently high-grade mineralisation extends continuously for 460 metres beyond the current resource boundary.
The company says these results validate its rapid expansion strategy targeting substantial growth at Green Bay, with plans to upgrade the current resource, which stands at 39.2 million tonnes at 2.1% copper for 811,000 tonnes of copper equivalent, in the near future.
Two more rigs are enroute to the project, bringing the total to four – they will underpin Firefly Metals’ goal of accelerating resource growth in parallel with in-mine discovery exploration.
Investors have welcomed the positive results with shares as much as 17.27% higher in ASX trading this morning to $A0.815 while the company's market cap is approximately A$381.70 million.
"Unlocking potential of wider area"
“We continue to generate exceptional step-out drilling results which point to substantial growth in the high-grade copper and gold resource at Green Bay,” FireFly Metals managing director Steve Parsons said.
“Given the consistently strong drilling results we are achieving, we are doubling the number of rigs to four.
“This is aimed at accelerating our resource growth while also seeking to make new discoveries.
“Green Bay is a large district-scale copper-gold mineralised system with huge potential outside the current resource and known mineralisation.
“We are aiming to unlock the value of this wider project area and therefore we are about to start regional geophysical surveys to define lookalike copper-gold targets for drill testing.”
FireFly intends to launch an underground downhole Electromagnetics (DHEM) and regional Airborne versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) survey in the coming weeks.
Two distinct mineralisation forms
The mineralisation at Green Bay is hosted in two distinct styles - high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) copper-gold mineralisation and large-scale copper-rich footwall zone (FWZ) style mineralisation.
The latest results from the VMS zone include:
- 26.0 metres at 8.2% copper equivalent, including 13.1 metres at 14.3% (10.7% copper & 4.1g/t gold) from 47.8 metres;
- 18.0 metres at 4.9% (3.4% copper & 1.7 g/t gold) from 48.8 metres;
- 13.5 metres at 7.6% (5.3% copper & 2.6 g/t gold) from 71.7 metres;
- 5.4 metres at 12.2% (8.6% copper & 4.0g/t gold) from 47.4 metres;
- 20.3 metres at 3.3%, including 6.9 metres at 5.4% (4.8% copper & 0.6g/t gold) from 90.4 metres; and
- 20.8 metres at 4.3% (4.0% copper & 0.3g/t gold) from 122.2 metres.
FWZ results include:
- 55.0 metres at 1.8% copper equivalent including 12.1 metres at 2.3% and 8.9 metres at 3.0% from 292 metres;
- 47.1 metres at 1.5% including 7.4 metres at 2.2% and 16.3 metres at 1.8% from 284.3 metres; and
- 31.5 metres at 1.6% including 21.9 metres at 1.7% and 3.1 metres at 3.7% from 263 metres.
FireFly Metals considers these results to be of particular significance, as they demonstrate continuous VMS and FWZ mineralisation between the current resource and the 460-metre step-out exploration hole.
The company says it is fully funded to pursue its growth strategy, having raised $52 million through an equity raising in March.