Historic Studies Highlights Copper Project Opportunity
Due diligence work undertaken by Orion Minerals (ASX: ORN) at the Okiep Copper Project has defined high priority drill targets on the historic Carolusberg – Koperberg line in South Africa.
Managing Director and CEO, Errol Smart, said the targets were identified during ongoing due diligence investigations being undertaken by Orion on the extensive database recently secured over the Okiep Copper Project.
The Carolusberg – Koperberg Complex is situated 20km southeast of the Flat Mine Complex that hosts the current OCP Mineral Resources base of 11.5Mt at 1.4% Cu for 159,000 tonnes of contained copper.
The line was first discovered in 1680 and subsequent workings have been intermittently mined from 1850-2001.
The Carolusberg – Koperberg workings contributed approximately 35% of the total post World War II production of 105Mt of copper ore produced by the O’Okiep Copper Company (OCC).
Newmont and subsequently Goldfields, who were the owners of OCC, undertook extensive drilling and geological mapping during their tenure and paper records of the historic exploration have now been digitised and are being modelled by Orion.
“Our geological team at OCP continue to unpack huge value from the historic data that we have secured,” Mr Smart said.
“Using modern 3D GIS modelling, we are able to get a better understanding of the geological controls which assist in identifying high priority targets for drill testing.
“We have already demonstrated that the high-quality data allows us to fast-track the re-estimation of resources using historic drill data with a Mineral Resource of 11.5Mt @ 1.4% Cu already reported in accordance with JORC 2012.
“This Resource was confirmed within three months of securing options on the mineral rights and the historic data. Resource estimation work is continuing under the guidance of Mr Paul Matthews, who has joined Orion as Group Mineral Resource Manager.
“I am particularly thrilled to be working with Paul again, as he was a key member of the contracted team that helped us identify the early potential at Prieska. Paul’s early resource estimates for Prieska, back in 2015, have proved to be accurate after extensive follow up drilling and resource estimation. Paul is a very experienced Mineral Resource Manager and has joined us full time.
“Our attention at OCP is now turning to identifying high-quality targets for undiscovered high-grade deposits such as those historically discovered in the Okiep district including the Okiep Mine (that gave the district its name) which yielded 907,000 tonnes of sulphide ore at 21% copper, and Nababeeb South which yielded 816,000 tonnes at 5.5% copper.
“We are focusing on similar geological settings to that of Okiep and Nababeeb South and have identified high-priority targets to be tested on the BCC property which is currently under option to Orion.
“These high-grade deposits are usually found in pipes or blows and have very small dimensions of 150m – 250m diameter and were easily missed by historic wide-spaced drilling.”
