ASX listed base metals-focussed Metalicity has commenced reverse circulation drilling at the Yerrida Basin near Wiluna in Western Australia.
The Yerrida Basin has a geological setting considered amenable to hosting structural/stratigraphic-controlled copper-cobalt mineralisation and nickel-cobalt sulphide mineralisation and is a nice fit in Metalicity’s exploration portfolio alongside the Admiral Bay zinc project and the Lennard Shelf zinc play in WA’s northwest.
The company is currently looking to spin Admiral Bay out into a new Canadian listing in a strategy designed to maximise its value and preparations for drilling are currently underway at Lennard Shelf.
Anomalous historical rock chip samples from Yerrida show up to 0.64% cobalt from surface samples and 612 parts per million cobalt from drilling across an initial strike of approximately 25 kilometres.
The latest campaign will investigate the Yerrida project’s geological setting, which is considered by the company to be potentially analogous to the Central African Copperbelt, a prolific mining province hosting structural/stratigraphic-controlled copper-cobalt and nickel-cobalt sulphide mineralisation.
Drilling will target deeper structures from the shallow, south-dipping zone of 8m to 12m.
Recent exploration in this zone intersected anomalous cobalt mineralisation which provides support for the geological setting’s potential to host further high-grade copper-cobalt mineralisation associated with the underlying ‘red bed’ sandstones of the Yerrida Basin.
Field exploration teams have already started geological mapping and rock chip sampling, using a 250m X 250m pattern over a radius of a kilometre, to generate further drill targets.
Metalicity Managing Director Matthew Gauci said: “The commencement of exploration at Yerrida is of significant importance to the company, as we are not only targeting deeper, highly-prospective structures adjoined to the identified cobalt horizon, we are also testing an exploration model which could deliver substantial exploration upside.”
“At a time when battery minerals are increasingly in demand, globally, Metalicity is investigating the similar geological setting shared by the Yerrida project and the internationally renowned Central African Copperbelt.”
Recent field work by Metalicity that included 65 samples collected within a 2km by 3.5km target zone, identified up to 1500ppm Co and >1% Zn in weathered near-surface rock chips.
Some of these anomalous results were from samples associated with west-north-west striking breccia zones, which may be related to deep-seated structures and represent part of a potential ‘plumbing system’ for metalliferous fluids upwards and southwards into suitable trap horizons.
Recent drilling encountered a consistent near-surface base metal enrichment zone, interpreted to be a regolith enrichment zone, which may account for some of the anomalous results in the surface samples, however, more interestingly, an 8m to 12m thick, shallow, south-dipping zone of anomalous base metal showing 400–500ppm copper and 50–60ppm cobalt was intersected in all drill holes.
By Matt Birney
