Stelar Metals Ltd (ASX:SLB) has started fieldwork at the Baratta Copper Project in South Australia as it turns to copper exploration while awaiting an improvement in the lithium market before continuing work at the flagship Trident Project in Far West New South Wales.
Mapping and sampling started this week at Baratta in an historic copper mining region of South Australia that includes the Baratta Copper Mine which produced copper between 1896 and 1904 from a 1.5-kilometre-long zone of workings.
The company will carry out geological and structural mapping, rock chip sampling and systematic soil sampling over the strike length of the Baratta Mine workings, including a large IP anomaly to the west of the historic workings.
It is focusing on a 7-kilometre corridor of copper mineralisation and geophysical targets overlooked by previous explorers. This horizon extends from the Baratta mine into Stelar’s ground.
Return to Baratta
Stelar’s CEO Colin Skidmore said: “The Baratta Mine tenure (EL 6863) was granted just as the company was refocusing its efforts on the newly acquired Trident Lithium Project in NSW. Subsequently, Stelar has not yet undertaken any work on this very prospective copper project.
“As we wait for the lithium market to improve before continuing our work at Trident, we finally have an opportunity to return to Baratta to evaluate the copper potential and explore this highly prospective area.”
An example of discarded copper ore from an old working.
The Baratta Project, which comprises two licences and was granted to Stelar in late 2022, is considered highly prospective for sediment-hosted copper mineralisation, akin to the Central African Copperbelt.
No modern exploration has been conducted over the historic mine workings or over the large chargeable induced polarisation (IP) target identified along strike to the west of the workings.
Potential for copper
Historic broad-spaced soil sampling to the north identified multiple copper anomalies, indicating the potential for extensions and additional parallel repeats over an extensive strike length.
Copper anomalism and mineralisation at surface are underlain by dense and magnetic bodies, increasing prospectivity at Baratta.
The Baratta Copper Mine sits on the southern limb of the Worumba Anticline, a structure that can be traced to the west into neighbouring Taruga Resources’ Wyacca Copper Project. The project area also includes the Bibliando Dome, a diapir structure believed to be important for the movement of copper mineralisation in solution.
Stelar is also working with experts in salt tectonics to better understand the potential for sediment-hosted copper deposits at the Baratta Project.