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By Michael Busbridge
Litchfield Minerals has hit a whopping 148m of copper, including 90m grading 0.6 per cent copper and 1.8 per cent zinc from 17 metres depth at its Main Zone prospect, which forms part of the company’s Oonagalabi copper-zinc project, 120 kilometres north of Alice Springs.
The new hit represents the biggest drilling intersection to date at site and reinforces the company’s strong working theory of a continuous, thick and high-quality near-surface polymetallic corridor extending for more than 3 kilometres.
Gossanous and copper-rich rock chips at Litchfield Minerals’ Oonagalabi Main Zone in the Northern Territory.
Notable intercepts within the 148-metre zone included 15 metres grading 1.0 per cent copper and 1.4 per cent zinc from 28m, a 29-metre section grading 0.6 per cent copper and 3.0 per cent zinc from 42m, alongside a 35-metre slice running at 0.4 per cent copper and 0.5 per cent zinc from 166m depth.
The hole was designed as a 170-metre step-out from an earlier, equally impressive 90-metre intersection that graded 0.9 per cent copper, 1.3 per cent zinc, 9 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.1g/t gold, reinforcing the polymetallic and continuous nature of the mineralisation.
Litchfield believes the strike at its Main Zone now stretches for more than 3km and 500m wide, with the mineralisation extending from surface to at least 500m deep, based on IP geophysics.
The company says the style of mineralisation at Oonagalabi appears similar in age and structure to KGL Resources’ polymetallic Jervois system, 120 km to the east of Oonagalabi, which hosts a resource of 27 million tonnes at 1.87 per cent copper, 0.24g/t gold and 25.3g/t silver.
Mineralisation at Main Zone is hosted within calc-silicate and marble sequences with massive to disseminated sulphides. Notably, alteration assemblages such as these are a common feature of many highly lucrative skarn-style deposits around the world.
The company says geophysical surveying and earlier drilling have identified additional targets and further upside beyond the Main Zone and add further support to the intrusion-related model being touted by Litchfield.
Targets such as VT2, two kilometres east of Main Zone, returned 26 metres grading 0.1 per cent copper and 0.5 per cent zinc and intersected massive sulphides on the edge of a 400-metre-long electromagnetic conductor.
Multiple holes at Bomb-Diggity Cluster, one kilometre northeast of Main Zone, intersected shallow copper-zinc-iron sulphides within an amphibolitic intrusive rock, confirming a fertile system with further drilling warranted.
And 5km to the south of Main Zone, the drill bit picked up a massive 104-metre copper-sulphide intercept from surface at its VT1 target in October, with high-grade bursts topping two per cent copper equivalent.
Litchfield Minerals managing director Matthew Pustahya said: “Across Phase Two and early Phase Three work, Oonagalabi is behaving like a large, active copper–zinc system. The 1.5km outcropping Main Zone continues to deliver broad mineralised thicknesses and OGRC014 has now intersected 148m of mineralisation.
From a valuation perspective, the near-surface Main Zone is what anchors Litchfield. Its scale and continuity appear to provide a clear valuation backstop as the company expands and de-risks the footprint through 2026.
Litchfield says it is well-funded to continue its exploration activities into the new year, following a recent $6 million raise.
The company says it plans to continue ground electromagnetic (EM) surveys through December, followed by diamond drilling into Bomb-Diggity and the Main Zone in January. In addition, reverse circulation drill rigs will be brought in to further test the EM plates at its VT1 and VT2 targets.
Litchfield’s Oonagalabi Main Zone geophysical and geological stars appear to be lining up, suggesting the company could be onto a sizeable system. With a stock price that, at one point, soared as much as 480 per cent to $1.16 a share since October, the punters clearly believe it too.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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