Battery Minerals has acquired the Russell Copper Project near Halls Creek in WA’s Kimberley region
Malachite, Azurite, Native Copper from Russell Gossan. (Credit: Battery Minerals.)
Battery Minerals Limited (ASX: BAT) is pleased to advise it has agreed to acquire the Russell Copper Project in the Halls Creek tectonic zone adjacent to Panoramic Resources’ (ASX:PAN) Savannah nickel-copper-cobalt project (Figure 1).
The Russell Copper Project will be acquired from iCopper Pty Ltd, a syndicate in which Indigenous Kimberley residents are 47% shareholders.
Under the Sale Agreement, Battery Minerals will pay $100,000 in cash and issue $1 million worth of ordinary shares. Battery Minerals is required to make subsequent payments of a further $1.5 million in aggregate in cash and shares after 12 months and after all the tenements have been granted and transferred to the Company. If these payments are not made, project ownership will revert to the vendor.
The combined tenement package comprises 258km2 of highly prospective geology. Historical exploration has mapped a copper-bearing trend over 8km. Recent surface rock chip samples have returned grades up to 29.9% copper with silver assays up to 36ppm (Figures 2-6).
Executive Chairman David Flanagan said: “The Russell Copper Project is an outstanding opportunity for Battery Minerals.
“It means we have a large tenement package in the highly prospective Halls Creek tectonic zone, which is one of WA’s few remaining under-explored mineral provinces.
“The very limited exploration undertaken there highlights the enormous potential, with strong evidence of a significant mineralised system over a large area.
“Having the support of the local community is also a huge advantage and we look forward to generating exploration success which will benefit them.”
The Russell Copper Project has seen limited historic drilling, with all 13 RC holes conducted solely at the Azura Prospect (see Appendix 2 & 3). The results included:
•AZA005, 1m at 0.52% Cu From 20m and 4m at 0.38% Cu from 60m
•AZA006, 1m at 0.40% Cu from 40m and 1 metre at 0.47% Cu from 73 m
•TAZRC002, 15m at 0.12% Cu from 1m and 35m at 0.12% Cu from 25m (EOH)
Historic data indicates the presence of native copper in a basalt host, indicative of Michigan- Style copper prospectivity, while copper mineralisation mapped at Russell’s Gossan is hosted in meta-sediments, giving rise to areas of untested sediment-hosted copper prospectivity.
Given the limited drilling and the significant extent of the surface expression of copper, the Company believes significant areas of the project remain under-explored.
As part of the agreement, Battery Minerals has also gained the benefit of pre-existing access agreements with Traditional Owners in support of active exploration.
The central tenement E80/4944 hosts a significant number of copper occurrences (Calico Spring, Fish Hole, Waterhole and Azura prospects – Figure 2) within the basalts of the Red Rock Formation including exposures of native copper as veinlets and as nuggets. The host rock to the copper mineralisation is a massive, silicified basaltic unit within the Red Rock Formation. Nuggety chunks of native copper and bornite are often present within the basalts. Secondary copper minerals (malachite and azurite) are common along joints and cracks. Epidote alteration, mainly along fractures, is widespread.
Limited historic drilling has been restricted to the Azura Prospect, with logging indicating native copper and disseminated sulphides, which due to sampling error, are not represented in the assay results. Surface rock chip sampling of the area indicate multiple >1%Cu grades (Figure 3). The known mineralisation, specifically native copper mineralisation, the host rock stratigraphy and the complex history of faulting and folding within the Halls Creek Orogeny provide significant encouragement for Michigan Style Copper mineralisation to be found within the Russells Copper Project.
Source: Company Press Release