Surefire Resources is turning its attention to its Yidby East project, announcing a maiden drilling program to investigate the Phat Boy Copper prospect.
The Phat Boy prospect consists of four coincident copper and zinc anomalous zones delineated along the margin of an inferred shear zone adjacent to an outcropping folded banded iron formation (BIF) over 3km.
The project is interpreted to be in a similar geological and structural setting to the world-class Golden Grove massive sulphide deposit. Surefire intends to investigate the area’s potential to host massive and disseminated sulphide mineralisation.
Volcanogenic (Volcanic) massive sulphide (VMS) and volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposits are major sources of zinc, copper, lead, silver, and gold. They typically occur as lenses of polymetallic massive sulphide that form on the seafloor in submarine volcanic environments and are classified according to base metal content.
The Phat Boy prospect is located on the southern portion of E59/2426, where previous exploration highlighted native copper and sulphides during a drilling programme that investigated the Banded Iron Formation (BIF) as a magnetite resource, within a package of interpreted submarine volcanic rocks.
Surefire is conducting a follow-up soil sampling program over the highly anomalous copper and zinc recovered from initial soil sampling on the northern flank of the BIF and will drill test the targets.
In preparation for the drilling, the company has submitted a program of works (PoW) to the West Australian Department of Energy Mines Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) for an initial eleven-hole RC (reverse circulation) drilling program.
Site access will initially be from existing tracks in the area, with additional tracks where required. Site works in preparation for the drilling will commence after the POW is approved.
Surefire Managing Director, Paul Burton, said, “Surefire is of the view that the high tenor of soil results, coupled with the presence of gossanous material and the previous occurrence of native copper and sulphides, makes this early planning for drilling approvals a prudent step as we advance this exciting program.”
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