ASX-listed Todd River Resources has kicked off an auger geochemical sampling program over a large section of the previously unexplored eastern trend of mafic and ultramafic rocks it considers prospective for intrusive-style nickel-copper-platinum group elements mineralisation at its Berkshire Valley project in WA.
According to the Perth-based company, the Berkshire Valley eastern trend has not been subject to systematic nickel-copper-PGE exploration previously and contains several strong magnetic anomalies associated with prospective stratigraphy. The portion of the eastern trend being targeted covers approximately nine kilometres of strike.
Todd River says the auger geochemical drilling at Berkshire Valley is aimed at detecting areas of coincident nickel-copper-platinum group element anomalies, similar to those encountered along part of the nearby western trend.
After the three-week eastern trend program, the company plans to carry out an additional round of sampling over untested magnetic highs interpreted to be mafic or ultramafic intrusions along the western trend.
The western trend targets have been identified outside of where prior sampling was undertaken across an 8km portion of the western trend in 2008 by IGO, who picked up coincident hints of nickel and copper albeit it was mainly looking for gold at the time.
Infill and extensional sampling work has also been pencilled in for several additional targets pending the conclusion of discussions with several of the Berkshire Valley project area’s private landowners.
Todd River acquired the project, 160km north-east of Perth, last year not long after Chalice Mining unveiled its exciting Julimar platinum group elements-nickel discovery about 100km south of Berkshire Valley.
According to Todd River, its 270 square kilometres of tenement holdings take in a 42km chain of mafic and ultramafic intrusions that occur in a geological setting analogous with Julimar.
Although the prior exploration by IGO primarily targeted gold mineralisation on the southern tenement at Berkshire Valley, Todd River says IGO recognised and did not ignore the presence of mafic and ultramafic intrusions.
In fact, the company routinely assayed its auger geochemical and shallow aircore drill samples for a suite of minerals including nickel and copper.
However, no assaying was done for platinum group elements, which Todd River says are critical for vectoring in on potential sulphide occurrences.
Following IGO’s wide-spaced auger geochemical sampling, further infill and extensional work was concentrated over the 8km of strike of the western greenstone package that includes several magnetic features corresponding to mafic and ultramafic intrusions.
IGO came across several nickel and copper “hotspots” during its exploration work, Todd River says. The company points out that limited drilling by IGO to follow up low-level gold in auger anomalies reaffirmed the presence of mafic and ultramafic rocks through geological logging of the drill samples and assay values of up to 0.48 per cent nickel and 0.2 per cent copper.
The remaining 34km of the interpreted strike length at Berkshire Valley remains largely untested, providing a further enticing greenfields opportunity for the $51 million market-capped base and precious metals explorer.
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By Matt Birney
