G’day all,
The last week or so has seen a couple of porphyry prospects start to report interesting results. One from TSX listed Arras Minerals and the other from ASX listed AusQuest Limited.
Whenever I see a discovery made I always think “Nice!” and I then think “I wish this was in made in Australia”.
Either way, if you are getting value out of these posts give me a share so I can grow my audience. Button below for convenience.
I’ve done short write ups on both below. Each one has its exciting potentials. Going off the back of the soil anomaly the Arras prospect could be very large, whereas AQD’s Cangallo is in a very favorable spot as far as the Andes are concerned, 1200m high and 10 km off the coast. Actually, I don’t know if this can even be called as the Andes. Here so far the grades are low and as a mate correctly pointed out there is a lot of sub 0.3 % Cu systems out there that will never make it. Nevertheless, these are very early encouraging results of some wide spaced RC holes targeting sub crop. I’m adding both to the tracker.
The Tracker
YRL- Siona
ARK.V- Elmes Targets
AQD- Cangallo
Follow ups
None
New interesting targets
Arras Minerals-ARK.V- Arras Minerals Drills 261 Metres @ 0.64% CuEq In First Holes at Berezski Central Target - Elemes Project, Kazakhstan
The Berezski targets emerged out of a set of tenement wide soil surveys Arras conducted on the Elmes group of tenements in Kazakhstan. The company has been active in the country for a few years and along with ground they operate on their own they have active JV’s with Teck.
The soil anomalies can be seen here and here. Some have been partially tested by legacy Soviet drilling whereas others remain to be drilled. Of particular interest here is the observable metal zoning between Cu and Mo. One would expect that the core of the porphyry would exist below the Mo “bullseye” anomaly. However, complexities within polyphase porphyry systems may mean that this is but one intrusive that threw the Mo anomaly but may have contributed little to the Au or Cu budget or maybe lots? Simply put I don’t know, but what is clear is that these are big mineral systems.
I did not discover Arras but rather it was brought to my attention by a mate, Vukasin Pekovic whose insights I can recommend, particularly if you are a ASX centric investor as I am.
AusQuest Linmted-AQD- Significant Porphyry Copper Discovery at Cangallo
Long time readers would have seen me write about AQD repeatedly. Most of their drilling, including this target has featured in the weekly “Honorable Mentions” section.
They are one of the companies I consider to live up to Jon Hronsky’s exploration maxims of generating and exploring new search spaces. Unsurprisingly, and eventually they have made a interesting, albeit so far “low grade” discovery. I qualify low-grade as these could be very early results peripheral to a larger higher grade porphyry or what has been drilled could very well be as good as it gets. Either way the location is prime as power and water issue are ameliorated through the existence of nearby towns and its proximity to the Pacific Ocean.
A magnetic image of the area shows what appear to be multiple intrusive centers. Some are sub-cropping, others are below colluvium and others yet are lithologically blind below sedimentary cover. This will need more work to adequately test all targets and work out how good the system gets. Very early days on this one.
The company provided assays for 2 holes and logs for the remainder. Assays for the remainder are expected in February.
Much of the mineralization drilled so far is oxidized leading to ideas of high revenue low-grade heap leach operations. For anyone interested in what these can look like check out Freeport Mcmoran’s SW USA operations.
Honorable Mentions
A few of interest this week
Belararox Limited-BRX- Drilling program commences at TMT Project
Metal Hawk Limited-MHK- Exceptional Results Extend High Grade Gold at Thylacine
Lucapa Diamond Company-LOM- Large base metal targets identified at Merlin
Stavely Minerals- SVY- Large-Scale Breccia-Hosted Gold Target
Gold Moutain Limited-GMN- Discovery of Nickel-Copper at Iguatu
Techgen Minerals Limited-TG1- Outstanding EM Conductors at Blue Devil
Noronex Limited-NRX- Drilling Commenced on Damara Copper Project
As a final note I want to express my gratitude to the Money of Mine podcast guys for giving me a share on their Directors Special daily letter. Thanks gents! It’s a quality pod that fills in all the gaps I lack as a geo.
Disclaimer
Nothing here is financial advice, comes with no warranty and I take no responsibility for anyone’s financial decisions. All opinions are my own.
Cheers,
CC