Drilling to date has demonstrated the presence of mineralisation over a strike extent of at least 1.8km, trending northeast-southwest along the A1 Dome. Importantly, the mineralisation intersected in the approximately 200m spaced drilling completed to date remains open to the north-east, and up and down-dip.
The copper-silver mineralisation at A1 is interpreted to be hosted in a thrust-related vein system, located near-surface at the centre of a periclinal anticline within the D’Kar Formation, a similar geological setting to the T3 and A4 Deposits.
Richard Holmes Sandfire’s Executive, Growth said: “Our dominant land position in the Kalahari Copper-belt is beginning to demonstrate its pedigree with the discovery of the A1 mineral system. Our patient approach to exploration, with the collection of regional scale datasets and their integration into a holistic exploration model, is delivering positive results. While the A1 system is still emerging and more drilling is required to understand its potential, it’s pleasing to have success so close to our existing infrastructure, with the Motheo Copper Mine only 20km away. Our current project generation work is delivering a pipeline of targets within sight of the headframe, which we will be testing over the coming months.”
Highlights
- Extensive structurally controlled copper-silver mineralisation outlined over a 1.8km strike length at the A1 Dome, 20km from the new Motheo Copper Mine.
- The mineralisation has been drilled on ~200m spacings to date and remains open to the northeast along strike, as well as up- and down-dip.
- The recent drilling success at A1 demonstrates the substantial exploration potential of Sandfire’s Kalahari Copper Belt landholding, where it is developing an extensive pipeline of exploration opportunities within haulage distance of the new Motheo Production Hub.
- Further work expected at A1 following completion of the current program includes testing of a potential ~4km strike extension of the mineralised horizon to the north-east and drilling to test the potential for deeper NPF contact-style mineralisation.
- Sandfire continues to collect high-quality geophysical data to further develop its understanding of the basin architecture in the Kalahari Copper Belt and incorporate these learnings into the Company’s regional exploration model.
- A major Airborne Gravity/Gradiometry (AGG) survey across Sandfire’s 26,000km2 tenement holding in the Kalahari Copper Belt is set to commence during the December Quarter of FY2023.
