ASX-listed base metals and gold explorer, Comet Resources has rattled the tin and raised a million dollars from sophisticated and institutional investors. The Perth-based company says the cash injection will largely go towards funding a planned expansion of exploration activities at its historic Barraba copper project in the New England Fold Belt region of NSW.
Comet Resources Managing Director, Matthew O’Kane said: “With the planned increase in scope of works at the Barraba project to now also include the historic Murchison mine in addition to the Gulf Creek mine area, we took the opportunity to execute the placement to bring on board some new strategic investors.”
Last month Comet sparked interest in the project by returning some interesting high-grade base metals assay results from initial soil geochemical sampling at the historic Murchison mine site at Barraba. Values went up to 4.6 per cent copper, up to 4.0 per cent zinc and up to 0.7 per cent cobalt.
According to the company, the surface sample base metals hits vindicate Murchison as a high-priority drilling target.
Comet carried out an initial first-pass field exploration program at Barraba in late 2020, with work including geochemical soil sampling, rock chip sampling and geological mapping across the historic workings at both the Murchison and Gulf Creek mines.
Management says evidence of copper mineralisation is widespread around the old Murchison copper mine.
Mr O’Kane said at the time: “These assay results … have confirmed that the historic Murchison copper mine at the Barraba copper project is another area of high-priority exploration interest. In addition to the known historical high-grade mineralisation at the (historic) Gulf Creek mine, these results now provide us with multiple exploration targets at the project. We look forward to advancing physical exploration works on both prospects.”
Historical records indicate that Murchison copper was produced in the early 1900s from ore estimated to have yielded an average grade of 3 per cent copper. The historical data and workings also indicate that Murchison and the nearby historic Gulf Creek copper mine were volcanic-associated massive sulphide, or “VMS” deposits.
Comet says these VMS-style deposits often occur in clusters as is the case with the ancient Murchison, Gulf Creek and Four Mile Lode mines, which lie within its approximately 24-square-kilometre fertile exploration licence area.
The company is now planning follow-up geophysical surveys, further rock chip and soil sampling and geological mapping at Barraba to try to firm up drill targets across its intriguing raft of prospect areas.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
