Snaps Up 105 Claims Near Arizona Project
Eagle Mountain Mining Limited (ASX:EM2) has moved quickly to significantly expand its land holdings surrounding its 80% owned Oracle Ridge Copper Mine Project in Arizona following some positive early stage exploration results.
Subsequent to field follow-up of geophysical anomalies in the near-mine area the company has staked 105 Unpatented Mining Claims surrounding Oracle Ridge.
The new Claims are within five kilometres of mine portals and cover two prospective areas named OREX and Red Hawk. OREX is prospective for skarn-hosted high-grade Cu-Ag-Au mineralisation while Red Hawk is potentially prospective for porphyry copper mineralisation.
CEO, Tim Mason, said the Claim were selected following a systematic exploration programme completed by Eagle Mountain’s technical team over the past nine months. The programme included regional geophysics, multi-spectral image analysis, historical data review and geological mapping and sampling.
“While the drill rig is currently testing extensions to the Oracle Ridge orebodies, it is pleasing to see the results of the regional work that the team has been involved with over the past nine months,” Mr Mason said.
“The second pillar of our exploration strategy at Oracle Ridge is to identify near-mine opportunities for expanding our resource base and expand our footprint in areas prospective for porphyry copper mineralisation, and it is exciting to see this coming to fruition.
“With the recently completed ground staking we have secured a strong land position over three high-quality targets, and I am also excited to see the regional work confirming our conceptual model for the greater Oracle Ridge mineralisation system.
“While there is a lot more work to do, new evidence supports our model for a deeper source for the copper, silver and gold at Oracle Ridge.”
A review of historic reports, part of the dataset received with the acquisition of Oracle Ridge, has highlighted the presence of seven drillholes in the area to the east of the mine.
Mr Mason said that this information, whilst not JORC compliant, is of sufficient significance that together with recent field work adds substantial support to the geological interpretation for the OREX area.
- The historical drilling identified prospective geology below the Leatherwood intrusive with confirmed copper mineralisation
- The drill holes intersected substantial thicknesses of prospective Escabrosa, Martin and Abrigo Formations below the Leatherwood granite, with these rocks being the main host to copper mineralisation at the Oracle Ridge mine
- Anomalous and low-grade, skarn-hosted copper mineralisation was intersected at or near the contact with the Leatherwood granite.
The drillholes were drilled in 1980 by a Joint Venture between Gulf Minerals Corporation and W.R. Grace Company, with results of the program reviewed by Oracle Ridge Mining Partners and summarised in an internal communication in 1992
