Rio Tinto/Rumble ResourcesRio Tinto remained as coy as ever...

Rio Tinto/Rumble Resources

Rio Tinto remained as coy as ever during the week on the significance of its Winu copper discovery in WA’s Paterson province.

So why the coyness? The answer seems to be that it is yet to be convinced that it has fully covered the potential for the broader region to host yet more Winus.

As previously noted here, Rio got really excited about Winu sometime late last year as it launched itself in to one of the biggest pegging rushes ever seen.

From holding 2300sqkm in its own name and in joint ventures before December last year, it has since moved to more than 16,000sqkm.

And it has an appetite for more, with a noticeable push west of the generally-accepted western edge of the Paterson with its Proterozoic rocks into the Archean rocks of the Pilbara.

As recently as June, Rio lodged an application for exploration licences which a junior had let lapse covering 1,375sqkm in the Paterson between Newcrest’s Telfer gold-copper mine and Metals X’s Nifty copper mine.

Only problem is that it was beaten to the punch by another junior, Rumble Resources (RTR), which last traded at 5c for a market cap of about $17m.

Rio’s over-lapping application 90 minutes later has incorrectly made its way on to the Paterson tenement maps that are now floating around the place since news of the Winu discovery first broke here.

But Rumble is first in line.

It’s a great pick-up for the junior – it has called the project Lamil - but it has to be said its current priority is on divining the big time potential of its Braeside base and precious metals project in the east Pilbara (Lamil is 30km to the south-east of Braeside).

Rumble is close to reporting results from a recently completed drilling program at Braeside in which 14 targets were tested over a strike length of 35km within a mineralised corridor up to 6km wide.

So with or without Lamil, Rumble was going to be one to watch in coming weeks.

As for the Lamil project, expect the same systematic approach by Rumble to defining drill targets as used at Braeside.

In the meantime, the fact that Rio has been trying to extend its already massive Paterson/Pilbara tenement coverage kind of goes to the idea that Winu must indeed be something special, subject to confirmation by Rio of course.

Antipa/Greatland

It is suggested that Rio got on to Winu using airborne electromagnetics (AEM).

So it was interesting to hear from Antipa (AZY) that Rio, as operator of their Citadel joint venture project up near Winu, has proposed a 600sqkm AEM survey to define EM conductors with the potential to represent semi-massive to massive sulphides associated with gold and/or copper mineralisation.

Importantly, Antipa said the AEM survey was not included in the original program proposed in the current field season and that it “represents a decision by Rio to undertake additional regional geophysical work.”

The 600sqkm is the last bit of Citadel not previously subject to AEM. Previous work has identified lots of targets so the latest AEM addition is a case of Rio being thorough. Given the potential for another Winu, why wouldn’t it be?

And coverage of the building Paterson rush created by the yet-to-be-confirmed Winu discovery would not be complete without a mention of the spectacular results reported during the week by the UK’s Greatland Gold at its Havieron gold/copper discovery, about 160km south east of Winu, and 40km east of Telfer.

It is not every day that a (combined) 275m hit grading 4.77g/t gold and 0.61% copper is reported. It looks to be of the Olympic Dam/Ernest Henry IOCG type and along with Winu, means the Paterson is shaping up as the place to be.