Surface Copper Mineralisation Identified At New Crosswinds Prospect
WA and NT explorer and near-term gold developer, Middle Island Resources Limited (ASC:MDI) has announced a significant surface copper discovery at its 100%-owned Barkly copper-gold project in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Managing Director, Rick Yeates, said the discovery, named the ‘Crosswinds prospect’, follows a reconnaissance site visit to better understand the physiography and logistic considerations in advance of a planned 2021 ‘dry season’ (April-October) exploration campaign.
“Even disregarding the high-grade copper results, the Crosswinds discovery is particularly significant in that it’s interpreted to provide ‘proof of concept’ for the Barkly mineralised model,” Mr Yeates said.
“Crosswinds is an extremely exciting discovery. While there is little doubt that more such surface occurrences will be identified by on-going exploration, the focus is the potential for significant primary copper deposits within the basement.”
The newly discovered Crosswinds copper prospect is located immediately adjacent to the sealed Barkly Highway, approximately 13km southeast of Barkly Homestead, within permit EL32297, which represents one of 10 exploration licences comprising the 3,253 sq. km Barkly copper-gold super-project.
The mineralisation comprises malachite (copper carbonate) exposed in a table-drain adjacent to the Barkly Highway, with mineralisation exposed over an interval of 130m.
Spot pXRF readings taken at the time of discovery range from 24.8% to 76.2% Cu, and which are confirmed by subsequent composite chip samples, collected over continuous 20m to 65m intervals, ranging from 0.63% to 0.93% Cu and aggregating 130m at 0.76% Cu.
