Golden Deeps jags whopper copper-silver hit in NSW

Golden Deeps’ share price has flown out of the gates this morning after its drill bits notched up another massive intersection at its Havilah project in the renowned Lachlan Fold Belt in New South Wales, this time striking 92m of disseminated copper and silver sulphides.

The news sent the company’s stock to a high of 5c, marking a more than 31 per cent jump on Friday’s 3.8c close, with nearly 26 million shares changing hands in the first two hours of the new week’s opening session.

Semi-massive chalcopyrite and sphalerite at 102m returned from Golden Deeps’ third hold at the Havilah project in the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW.

The fourth diamond hole of Golden Deeps’ latest drill program – plunged into the Hazelbrook prospect north-east of the previously-reported third hole that intersected 80m of semi-massive copper and zinc sulphides – has extended the target’s mineralisation zone by 200m.

Early promising results using a portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) device showed copper concentrations going as high as 3.6 per cent next to silver grades of up to 346 grams per tonne. The drillhole also encountered a 42m zone of particularly high chalcopyrite concentrations, producing an average copper reading of 0.1 per cent.

‘We look forward to launching a new drilling program to test this exciting discovery of widespread, copper-bearing sulphide mineralisation.’

Golden Deeps chief executive officer Jon Dugdale

Management sees the latest results as particularly important in building on the success of the third hole that, within its 80m-thick zone of sulphides, also included 28m of more intense mineralisation up to 18.5 per cent copper and 34.8 per cent zinc, with an average of 0.5 per cent copper and 0.7 per cent zinc.

Golden Deeps chief executive officer Jon Dugdale said: “The widespread mineralisation at Havilah indicates we’re on top of a large porphyry-sulphide system with similar geological characteristics to major deposits in the Lachlan Fold Belt such as Cadia-Ridgeway. Subject to laboratory assay results, including for gold and silver, and the further soil sampling, we look forward to launching a new drilling program to test this exciting discovery of widespread, copper-bearing, sulphide mineralisation.”

The Hazelbrook trend has now been extended across a strike length of more than 1km, with exploration ramping up across the area. Detailed soil sampling programs being conducted north-east of the latest hole have thrown up some of the highest copper concentrations to date – as much as 0.35 per cent.

Management is now waiting on full laboratory results, including assays for gold and silver, and it then plans to launch a comprehensive new drilling campaign to target the 3km-by-1km copper-rich mineralised zone at Hazelbrook.

Another area of potentially significant copper mineralisation for follow-up fieldwork has also been identified at the Milfor prospect immediately south-east of Hazelbrook. The target covers a substantial 1km-by-800m area, with previous rock-chip results showing up to 1.1 per cent copper in association with copper-sulphides.

The Havilah project lies in the Rockley-Gulgong Volcanic Belt of the Lachlan Fold and covers a highly-prospective area for copper, zinc and gold mineralisation. The area is part of the Macquarie Arc, a geological formation known for hosting world-class copper-gold deposits including Newmont’s Cadia-Ridgeway and Alkane Resources’ Boda-Kaiser discovery. According to management, the mineralisation at Havilah is associated with the Ordovician Sofala volcanics and is part of a significant porphyry copper system.

In addition to its operations in NSW, Golden Deeps holds the Abenab vanadium project in Namibia’s Otavi Mountain Land, a copper-lead-zinc and vanadium district. Immediately south of Abenab, the company is also sitting on a high-grade vanadium-copper-lead discovery at the Nosib prospect, with hits that include 53.5m grading 1.15 per cent copper, 0.62 per cent vanadium, 3.49 per cent lead and 4.57g/t silver.

Management says its ultimate goal is to build resources and advance developments toward becoming a producer of key metals such as copper and vanadium – essential metals for the global transition to renewable energy.

With its coffers now topped up from a fresh $1.78 million equity raising at 5.9c a share just a fortnight ago, Golden Deeps is well-funded for the ongoing exploration programs at Havilah that are likely to keep the interest of investors piqued.

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