Copper Hill East porphyry copper project

Highlights

  • Copper and gold in soils anomaly – Minimum of 7 km strike length
  • Strong magnetic anomaly in north with copper-gold anomaly at Turrawonga Prospect
  • Native copper in surface rocks with strong copper in soil anomaly at Lyons Prospect
  • RC drilling of targets identified commenced in late 2020 with encouraging results:
    • CHERC012 32m @ 0.29g/t gold & 0.13% copper including 12m @ 0.45g/t gold & 0.22% copper
    • CHERC013 30m @ 0.64g/t gold and 0.04% copper from 178m including 18m @ 1.0 g/t gold & 0.04% copper from 182m which includes 2m @ 6.9g/t gold and 0.03% copper from 182m
  • Following the results in CHERC012 and CHERC013, Godolphin expedited the follow up drilling of diamond tails to these holes aimed at generating further geological data to better define the system’s mineral zonation, and to target economic gold-copper mineralisation in a porphyry-proximal potassic alteration zone. (ASX announcement 2 March 2021)
  • Extending drill holes CHERC012 and CHERC013 confirmed that a very large porphyry related hydrothermal system has been intersected at the Turrawonga Prospect with extensive pyrite, magnetite and hematite alteration recognised in the diamond-cored tails.
  • During 2022, Godolphin completed intensive petrographic work and sent samples of the intrusive rocks to the University of Tasmania for age dating, which confirmed an Ordovician age for the porphyry intrusions at the Turrawonga Prospect located within EL8556. The dating of rocks confirm an age equivalent to other major porphyries in the region including the Cadia Copper-Gold Mine, the Copper Hill Copper Deposit and the Boda Copper-Gold Project, all within the Molong Volcanic Belt. Thereby confirming that Turrawonga is part of the Molong Volcanic Belt mineralising event.
  • A reconnaissance field trip to Spring Creek, on the Copper Hill East Project, returned excellent copper and gold assays from surface grab samples: up to 2.80g/t Gold and 0.47% Copper from quartz vein float (ASX announcement 22 March 2024)

Overview

The 100% owned highly prospective Copper Hill East (CHE) Project (EL8556) is located 35 km north of Orange in the Molong Volcanic Belt and has the potential to host various types of mineral deposits including porphyry gold-copper of the Cadia and Boda style and orogenic gold of the McPhillamy’s style. The 2019 Boda porphyry gold-copper discovery by Alkane Resources Ltd is located approximately 60 km to the north of CHE and highlights the exceptional potential of this area. Newcrest’s giant Cadia-Ridgeway operation is located approximately 55 km to the south.

Soil sampling in 2019/20 defined a copper anomaly of >150ppm Cu, over a minimum strike length of 7 km and containing anomalous gold in the north of the area. Mapping on the northern gold-copper anomaly at the Turrawonga Prospect delineated an intrusive complex with porphyry-style alteration and mineralisation. Ground magnetics in the north defined large magnetic anomalies which coincide with the gold-copper soil geochemical anomaly. Mapping of the southern part of the copper in soil anomaly confirmed native copper, with associated epidote alteration, over a significant area. A ground magnetic survey completed over the anomalies identified structures and lithological trends which correlate with the surface mapping and geochemical anomalism. A petrographic study identified the native copper mineralisation in porphyritic and amygdaloidal basaltic rocks with “calc-ferric” alteration.

Background

The Copper Hill East Project has a long history of minor scale historical workings, mainly focussed in the southeast corner of the tenement. Most of the workings are concentrated on the margins\contacts of the Mullion Range Volcanics and the Barnaby Hill Shale and according to available data were exploited for pyrite (for the extraction of sulphur), gold (both hard rock and alluvial), copper and other base metals.

As far as can be ascertained, modern exploration activities commenced in the area in the mid-1970s. Numerous companies have been active in the area, including: Kamilaroi Oil, Samedan, Aquitaine, Amoco/Shell, Tri Origin/Delta Gold JV, Alkane, Comet and Newmont.

Geology

In general, the tenement contains the north trending Early Ordovician to Early Silurian Molong Volcanic Arc (MVA), in which the western portion within the tenement consists mainly of Ordovician mafic volcanics and volcaniclastics and the eastern portion consisting of Silurian felsic volcanics and sediments.

The MVA hosts both porphyry hosted gold-copper mineralisation (Cadia-Ridgeway, Boda and Copper Hill) and skarn related deposits such as Browns Creek.

The MVA is dominated by major north-south trending strike slip fault arrays which generally mark the contact between Ordovician volcanic rocks in the west and younger geological units in the east. These are thought to be relevant to the gold and base metal mineralisation in the area.

It is thought that north-westerly trending structures have significant control on mineralised intrusive bodies (Copper Hill) and post-mineralisation deformation at the majority of known gold-copper deposits in the area.

A variety of alteration assemblages have been identified. The most notable are the sericite, hematite, epidote, quartz and carbonate within the Oakdale Formation (in the Ordovician volcanics), while potassic and propylitic alteration have been observed in a monzodiorite intrusion in the northern part of the tenement.

Work from previous exploration activities indicates that this project contains VHMS, skarn and mesothermal gold type occurrences. Lithologies within the tenement are conducive to these types of deposit styles.