crj : another carapateena

Amazing intercept from the 50th hole drilled at the Carapateena Prospect in SA (Teck Cominco).

Highlights the potential of the region for further Olympic Dam style large discoveries and the patience required to get there. Bring on the "aggressive" 4 to 8 hole program at Churchill Dam.

MiningNews - Carapateena yields best ever hit
Paul Garvey - Tuesday, 24 April 2007

THE Carapateena prospect's status as one of the hottest discoveries in Australia has been further enhanced, with latest drilling at the South Australian project returning an intercept of 905m at 2.1% copper and 1 gram per tonne gold.

News of the nigh-on 1km-long intercept was contained in the latest quarterly report of Canadian miner Teck Cominco.

Teck Cominco is farming-in to the project from Rudy Gomez, a prospector who made the Carapateena find courtesy of a drillhole subsidised under the South Australian government's PACE initiative.

Teck said the 905m intersection included a 191m zone grading 3% copper and 0.9gpt gold and 95m at 3.3% copper and 0.6gpt gold.

The miner added that several holes 100m north, east and southeast of the intercept had returned visual copper mineralisation, with assays still pending.

Teck can acquire Carapateena outright for $A32 million in cash, the completion of 75,000m of drilling on the main zone and the testing of several others, and a final payment of 66% of the project's market value.

The 905m interval came from hole number 50. At the PDAC Convention in Toronto early last month, Teck Australian exploration manager Ian Sandl said the 50th hole appeared to be shaping up as the best hole out of the project so far.

The higher grade zones within the latest hole will no doubt be particularly satisfying for Sandl, who said richer zones of mineralisation would be vital for the project.

"We need high-grade mineralisation with this depth of cover, so we're looking to identify at least 100 million tonnes of higher grades … hopefully above 2% copper," Sandl said on the sidelines of PDAC.