Aug. 17, 2014, 8:30 p.m.
EXPLORATION company Minotaur has unveiled a pleasant surprise with strong results from the second drill hole at its Artemis project near Cloncurry.
The results come on top of initial “outstanding” discovery from the first drill hole, which drew comparisons to one of the most significant mines in the North West.
Minotaur business development manager Tony Belperio said earlier this month the results suggested the discovery to be double the grade of Eloise and he hoped it would be of similar size.
The second drill hole revealed a shallow, high-grade base metal bonus in the diamond hole above Artemis copper-gold discovery.
The Artemis project, a rich copper-laden discovery by Minotaur Exploration Limited yielded a surprise – a high-grade zinc-lead-silver intersection – in shallower strata above the copper-gold-zinc-silver rich zone.
Minotaur announced on Friday that its second hole (EL14D10) drilled for the Eloise Copper Joint Venture, just 20 kilometres west of the producing Eloise copper-gold mine, yielded rich zinc, lead and silver results.
It assayed 5 per cent zinc over 21 metres plus 1.85 per cent lead and 69 grams per tonne (g/t) silver.
Both holes, about 30 vertical metres apart, reported sulphide minerals. Artemis is a greenfields target in the Cloncurry area, which is Minotaur’s priority exploration focus nationally, closely followed by its nickel-gold interests in WA.
The recent discovery hole, EL14D09, yielded nine metres at 5.2 per cent copper, 7.9 g/t tonne gold, 10.2 per cent zinc and 181 g/t silver, as part of a much larger 22-metre interval encountered at just 150 metres below ground level.
The second hole Minotaur says, suggests a polymetallic zone sits just above the discovery copper-gold-zinc-silver intersection.
Minotaur managing director Andrew Woskett said the second diamond hole was designed to test the up-dip extent of the initial result and a third, deeper hole (EL14D12) will test the down-dip extension of mineralisation, about 50 metres below that reported from the discovery hole.
“The down-dip and strike extent of mineralisation at Artemis remains open,” he said.
“So we think there is considerable scope there. Information from the third hole, now under way, and later drilling along strike, will help to extend the range of the mineralised bodies. We certainly like what we have so far and see definite geological analogies to the nearby Eloise copper-gold mine.”
