Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER) has begun maiden drilling in its quest for copper & gold within the 100%-owned South Cobar Project in NSW.
It’s four holes down in an up to 40-hole reverse circulation program at the Achilles 1 polymetallic prospect site.
The campaign – delayed thanks to flooding across the Central West region in 2022 – has since been been informed by the recent successes of neighboring Australian Gold and Copper (ASX:AGC), which made its Achilles 3 discovery in May.
“We’re drilling the sweet spot target that’s comparable geologically to where Australian Gold and Copper made that discovery,” Managing Director David DeTata said from the drill site this week.
“Their Achilles 3 project has reported grades up to 45 grams per tonne of gold.
“Their soil geochem anomaly is very similar to what we’re targeting here at the Achilles 1 project.
“Imagine… we’re 7km to the south and our soil geochem anomoly is up to three times larger, so we’re hoping to replicate their success in this drill program.”
‘We won’t stop until we have answers’
“I want investors to know that we are doing this properly – we are going to be drilling up to 40 holes or 3000 metres,” David DeTata said.
“We will test the strong polymetallic soil anomaly defined by the historical soil data; an Ultrafine+ soils survey program; and, we’ll be looking at its relationship to the prospective Achilles Shear.
“We’ll also explore intersecting northeast-trending magnetic highs identified in our airborne magnetic survey.
“We won’t be stopping until we have answers as to what lies below the surface.”
The neighbours, Australian Gold and Copper, are also continuing to drill in the Achilles Shear Zone, noting it remains open to the north.
Flooding does SER a favour
It’s taken Strategic Energy Resources longer to get to the point of drilling than company leaders had hoped, due to that flooding across the Central West of NSW in 2022. Permitting delays didn’t help either.
That was certainly disheartening at the time, but Dr DeTata says as it’s turned out, it’s actually done the company a favour because the flooding preceded the AGC discovery which has now provided strong intel and guidance, leading to a complete redesign of the drilling campaign.
“We did have a diamond drill program all lined up and ready to go,” he said.
“We were doing five lines of diamond drilling across the top of the Achilles Prospect, but unfortunately back in 2022, this entire area was actually covered in water due to the severe flooding event.
“In the time since 2022, what we’ve done is learn from our explorers to the north, we’ve redesigned a drill program around an RC rather than a diamond drilling program, and now we’ve started kicking that off to really understand what the soil geochem anomaly looks like at depth.
“We’re doing a totally different program. It’s a cheaper program and we’ll get it done a lot faster.”
SER’s drilling program is expected to take about six weeks, with assay results to follow.
It’s worth noting that Eastern Metals (ASX:EMS) has also been working next door to Strategic Energy Resources in the South Cobar Basin and has this month reported ‘highly
anomalous grades from surface rock chip sampling’.
Gravity survey at FMG JV Canobie Project
And in other news this week, Strategic Energy Resources has also completed a gravity survey at the Canobie farm-in and joint venture (JV) with a subsidiary of Fortescue (ASX:FMG) in Far North Queensland, collecting 3225 new gravity measurements.
SER and FMG Resources Pty Ltd are targeting Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) in a fault system associated with several significant copper-gold deposits to the south, including Evolution Mining’s (ASX:EVN) Ernest Henry Mine.
“This latest dataset is crucial in the search for IOCG deposits,” Mr DeTata said.
“The ongoing investment by Fortescue in baseline datasets at Canobie demonstrates their willingness to explore the Canobie Project in a systematic manner in search of a Tier-1 discovery undercover.”
The new data will be reviewed alongside existing information to refine the exploration model and rank new drill targets to prepare for a future drilling campaign.
SER gained 23 per cent on the news (August 22) to close at 2.6 cents.
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