Superior kicks off drilling campaign in Qld copper-gold hunt

Superior Resources has pulled the trigger on what it describes as its “most anticipated and exciting” drilling program. The campaign is following up the huge 632m copper sections the company reported earlier this month from a large interpreted copper-gold porphyry system at its Bottletree prospect, part of its larger, wholly owned Greenvale project near Townsville in Queensland.

The company has started an eight-hole diamond program covering 3700m of the interpreted porphyry system, testing a 1.5km by 1km soil copper anomaly and a 1km-wide induced polarisation, or “IP” chargeability anomaly that was mapped after Superior remodelled data from a previous IP survey.

The large chargeability anomaly is thought to be potential mineralisation related to the core or cores of one or more buried porphyry intrusions.

The first bore is being sunk 300m west and downdip of the hole that returned the standout 632m intersection, including a main copper zone of 224m going 0.40 per cent copper, 0.05g/t gold, 0.9ppm silver and 3.5ppm molybdenum.

Superior has also earmarked seven other holes chasing interpreted porphyry intrusions and near-surface copper-gold mineralisation.

The company has carried out only two diamond drilling programs, with last year’s activities providing several ground-breaking findings, including bore hole intersections of wide-ranging porphyry-style copper-gold mineralisation.

Drilling during 2018 and 2021 focused on the strongest IP chargeability anomaly that is now considered to correspond to structurally controlled mineralisation some distance to at least one large copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry system.

Significant amounts of copper was reported, with one hole returning an overall intersection of 552.6m going 0.16 per cent copper, 0.02 g/t gold, 0.7 g/t silver from 132m to a total depth at 684.6m.

The company says its step-by-step approach to the current round of exploration focuses on convincing and strong central zone of copper-gold-molybdenum soil indicators, supported by a newly remodelled, large chargeability anomaly, airborne magnetics and satellite imagery-interpreted intrusion centres.

All the activity is downdip and behind a massive 632m of copper mineralisation returned from from an earlier drill hole. However, the chargeability anomaly is large and extends for about 1km, so apart from having very large size potential, the company has a lot of ground to cover.

Apart from the drilling, we will also be extending last year’s multi-element soil geochemistry program westwards as indications are that porphyry mineralisation extends significantly further than the 1.5 kilometre soil copper zone that originally defined Bottletree. We will also be extending the MIMDAS IP survey to cover the expanded prospect area.

Hwang believes the company has an exciting few months ahead as it awaits updates from the lab. Watch this space.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au