Javelin’s Coogee maiden drilling hits the mark with bonanza gold, copper intercepts

Javelin Minerals’ maiden drilling at its Coogee project has proven extensions to mineralisation with high-grade intersections.

Javelin Minerals’ first throw has gone the distance with drilling returning thick, high-grade gold, copper intersections outside the current Coogee resource. Pic: Getty Images

• Javelin Minerals’ maiden drilling at Coogee intersects high grades of up to 65g/t gold and 8.53% copper

• Results confirm presence of mineralisation below existing open pit and extensions to the north

• Work underway to refine geological interpretation to assist in targeting future drill programs

Special Report: Javelin Minerals’ first drill program at its Coogee project near Kalgoorlie looks to be a winner after intersecting multiple high-grade shoots with grades of up to 65g/t gold and 8.53% copper outside the current resource.

Not only did the drilling return individual 1m intercepts with gold grades in excess of 2 ounces per tonne, it also outlined mineralisation over a strike of at least 1km within the broader Coogee gold-copper system.

Top intersections from Javelin Minerals’ (ASX:JAV) Phase One drill program are:

• 5m at 14.22g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 143m including 1m at 65g/t from 145m, and 4m at 1.91% copper from 144m (CORC163)
• 10m at 4.55g/t gold from 91m including 1m at 38.1g/t from 98m (CORC170); and
• 7m at 6.42g/t gold and 2.54% copper from 108m including 1m at 8.53% copper from 109m (CORC171).

Having such strong results outside the current resources of 3.65Mt at 1.08g/t gold, or 126,685oz contained gold, and 1.01Mt at 0.41% copper, or 4133t contained copper, is a clear sign of Coogee’s growth potential.

Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) previously mined an open pit at Coogee in 2013, and the drill results show executive chairman Brett Mitchell was right on the money when he said in early December 2024 that the company was looking to emulate Spartan Resources’ (ASX:SPR) outstanding performance at the Dalgaranga gold project.

SPR is best known for taking the previously producing but low-grade Dalgaranga mine and in a fantastic show of brownfields exploration, discovering the high-grade Never Never gold deposit less than 1km from the existing 2.5Mtpa processing plant.

JAV’s theory is Ramelius similarly could have left some of the best gold at Coogee in the ground when it packed up there at a time of low gold prices in 2013.

Completed drilling showing significant intercepts, gram-metre contours and section lines. Pic: Javelin Minerals

Fantastic start

“This is a fantastic start to our exploration program at Coogee. We acquired Coogee because we saw the potential for it to become the next WA brownfields exploration success story,” Mitchell said.

“This view was underpinned by the established presence of a large mineralised system, the current resource, the geology and its location next to the world-class St Ives gold camp.

“We saw the potential to establish a large high-grade gold-copper resource on the edge of Kalgoorlie and these first assays clearly support that view.

“The results reveal new high-grade shoots outside the existing resource, both along strike and below the existing open pit.”

Drill results

The 18-hole reverse circulation drill program totalling 2921m was designed to test extensions of high-grade shoots of gold mineralisation immediately below the historical Coogee open pit and to confirm and extend gold-copper mineralisation at Coogee North.

Hole CORC170 directly below the pit returned a thick, high-grade intersection which demonstrated the potential for the extension of steeply plunging zones of high-grade mineralisation at the interpreted intersection of the main shear zone, and a series of high angle, cross-cutting structures.

Meanwhile, while drilling by previous operators at Coogee North defined zones of high-grade gold and copper mineralisation in a series of north-plunging stacked structures, the company’s recent drilling intersected a core of high-grade gold-copper mineralisation within a broader trend of lower grade mineralisation.

This includes the holes which intersected the top gold and copper grades.

JAV will now combine the results from this drill program with portable XRF information and lithogeochemical analysis to further refine the geological interpretation of the orientation and continuity of high-grade shoots to assist in targeting future drill programs.

This article was developed in collaboration with Javelin Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.