Monax Mining (ASX:MOX) and farm-in partner Western Area (ASX:WSA) have announced new drilling at the Gawler Craton project in South Australia, where geological indicators suggest the presence of major nickel and copper orebodies.
Western Areas will follow up encouraging olivine gabbro-norite intrusive rocks discovered in a number of early drill holes which confirmed the presence of magmatic nickel/copper sulphides.
These types of mafic intrusives are well known for hosting significant nickel and copper ore bodies in western and central Australia, including large Nova-Bollinger and Nebo-Babel discoveries.
The region has been interpreted as having potential to be equivalent to the highly mineralised Fraser Range or Musgraves areas in Western Australia.
“The success to date highlights that the Western Gawler region in South Australia will continue to be an important part of our medium to long term growth pipeline,” Western Areas managing director Dan Lougher said.
Last month, Western Areas completed a 65-hole drill program at the project for 5,789 metres as part of the first stage of its farm-in with Monax.
Under the agreement, Western Areas can earn an initial 75% interest in the tenements by spending $800,000 within 2.5 years. Upon earning a 75% interest in the tenements, the company has the right to earn a further 15% interest (for a total of 90%) by expending a further $400,000 within 1.5 years.
For its part, Monax has paralleled these efforts by securing full ownership earlier this year of the nearby Punt Hill iron ore-copper-gold (IOCG) project after a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chilean copper producer Antofagasta elected not to continue to sole fund exploration.
Punt Hill is located within a highly prospective IOCG province on the eastern margin of SA’s Gawler Craton, which hosts the world class Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill mines.
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