Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources is pocketing a handy $100,000 grant from the NSW Government to help fund the next drilling campaign at its promising Cyclops copper prospect north of Yeoval in the state’s central west.
The grant comes from the Government’s New Frontiers Exploration program as part of the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy. It will provide non-dilutive funding towards the company’s upcoming drill program at Cyclops following completion of ground-based magnetic surveys.
Godolphin has several projects in NSW’s Lachlan Fold Belt – a world-class gold-copper province that hosts multiple Tier 1 mining projects. The Cyclops prospect, situated approximately 4km north of Yeoval and part of the company’s larger Yeoval project, exudes significant copper-gold porphyry potential.
A two-hole 900m diamond drill program last year intersected multiple zones of high-grade copper mineralisation with coincident gold, silver and molybdenum.
Results included 18m at 0.52 per cent copper from 118m, including 8m at 1.01 per cent copper from 118m and 4m at 1.75 per cent copper from 122m. Mineralisation remains open along strike, plus up and down dip of the interpreted mineralised lodes.
In addition, soil sampling adjacent to Cyclops has identified anomalous copper immediately west of one of the drill holes.
The New Frontiers Exploration Program provides support to explorers for drilling and geophysical programs in the search for deposits of metallic minerals, including critical minerals and high-tech metals in NSW.
To be successful for a grant, applicants must establish strong prospectivity, sound financial planning and a proven technical base.
Godolphin Resources Managing Director, Jeneta Owens said: “This grant is a testament to the potential of the Cyclops prospect. It is pleasing to know that the panel of experts from the NSW Mining, Exploration and Geoscience department also see the merits of the project and the quality of the technical work completed to date by Godolphin.”
Godolphin says the company will begin the design of its drill campaign upon receiving an interpretation of the recently completed ground-based magnetic survey data.
The Yeovil project which covers 290 square kilometres and contains more than 60 historic copper and gold workings along 20km in strike length.
The Cyclops prospect consists of chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, bornite and molybdenum. Mineralisation is within magnetite-chlorite quartz lodes associated with discreet shear or fault-related zones.
Godolphin has already established an inferred 12.8 million tonne resource going 0.38 per cent copper, 0.14 grams per tonne gold, 2.2 g/t silver and 120 parts per million molybdenum at Yeoval.
The company says historical drillholes from the project’s Yeoval and Goodrich prospects were relogged in the last quarter of 2022 to prepare for upcoming exploration initiatives and both prospects contained copper sulphide mineralisation and porphyry-style alteration in unsampled drill core.
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By Matt Birney
