Castillo Copper’s cobalt shares same geology as Cobalt Blue’s Thackaringa deposit
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08:27 02 May 2018
A geology team is on site implementing a high-level exploration plan to determine an inaugural drilling program.
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A geologist carries out reconnaissance mapping at the Broken Hill project Castillo Copper Ltd (ASX:CCZ) has identified six cobalt prospects near Broken Hill with the same geological sequence as the nearby Thackaringa deposit of Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:COB).
The targets within Castillo’s Broken Hill project have the Himalaya Formation present and the company believes they are highly prospective for cobalt.
In fact, Castillo’s geology team is on site implementing a high-level exploration plan on the pre-selected sites.
This is being done to gain a greater understanding of the underlying geology, especially the extent of cobalt mineralisation.
Chairman Peter Meagher said: “It is pleasing to have the geology team on site undertaking mapping reconnaissance and geochemistry work.
“The six targeted areas have been carefully selected for their high prospectivity for cobalt mineralisation and similarities with Cobalt Blue’s Thackaringa project, especially having the Himalaya Formation presence confirmed.”
Targets host Himalaya Formation
Castillo identified the six targets hosting the Himalaya Formation after reviewing legacy drilling and geochemistry data, geophysics, geological observations and regional maps.
This work included reviewing an airborne geophysical magnetic dataset of the region.
Geologists believe there is a clear association between cobalt mineralisation and the Himalaya Formation of the Thackaringa Group.
Based on preliminary analysis, Target 1 is believed to be the most prospective of the six prospects.
Adjacent deposits
Archer Exploration (ASX:AXE) owns an adjacent deposit where several cobalt targets at surface have been identified that are also constrained to the Himalaya Formation.
Notably, the geology of surface outcrops at Cobalt Blue’s deposit, which is just 2-3 kilometres south of Castillo’s Target 6, aligns with this description.
The Thackaringa deposit has a JORC-compliant resource of 72 million tonnes at 852 ppm cobalt, 9.3% sulphur and 10% iron for 61,500 tonnes of contained cobalt.
Thackaringa is held in joint venture by Cobalt Blue and Broken Hill Prospecting (ASX:BPL) and both companies have undergone a share price re-rating.
READ: Castillo Copper adds cobalt targets at Cangai Project
While Castillo’s core objective is to reopen the Cangai Copper Project in northern New South Wales, Meagher said: “It is critical the board is across the underlying geology and extent of cobalt mineralisation at the Broken Hill project.
“We have a relatively large footprint in a region that is growing in stature as a prospective global supply chain hub for speciality metals.”
Cangai comprises a volcanogenic massive sulphide ore deposit, with one of Australia’s highest grade JORC compliant inferred resources for copper of 3.2 million tonnes at 3.35%.
In terms of contained metal, the inferred resource is 107,600 tonnes of copper, 11,900 tonnes of zinc, 2.1 million ounces of silver and 82,900 ounces of gold.
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