AGC Managing Director, Glen Diemar said “finding such a large,...

AGC Managing Director, Glen Diemar said “finding such a large, high-tenor copper rock
chip anomaly in 42-year-old historic data is even more exciting than sampling it ourselves
and is a lot cheaper. We were absolutely stunned to find such a strong and well defined
copper trend in a totally underexplored sedimentary basin”.
“These basins in NSW can be highly productive for base-metals as seen in the nearby
Cobar Superbasin. The world class CSA Mine near Cobar is a local example of a structurally
hosted copper deposit and is currently the highest-grade copper mine in Australia. We
believe a CSA deposit model is a very attractive exploration target for AGC at Ootha”.
“Last week we were able to go to the area for a reconnaissance trip and, albeit very wet,
were able to confirm the presence of strongly anomalous copper in roadside outcrops.
Using a handheld XRF machine, we were able to rapidly validate the sampling and
assaying completed 42 years ago”.
“We have a great head start so once the licence is granted, we will accelerate on-ground
efforts with soil sampling for target definition. There is abundant outcrop and good
exposure of the basement rocks meaning efficient exploration can be achieved. Our
priority remains to explore for near-surface, high quality targets which can be worked up
and tested rapidly and cost effectively” Mr Diemar said.
Australian Gold and Copper Ltd (ASX: AGC) (AGC or the Company) is pleased to report that
an application has been lodged for a new exploration licence (ELA6549) called ‘Ootha’.
This new licence application area replaces the Derriwong licence, as Derriwong did not
cover the area of elevated copper.
A review of historic data led AGC’s geologists to the recognition of an extensive, multipoint,
10km+ long, copper anomaly in rock chip anomaly. The original sampling was done
between 1977-1979 by Mines Exploration Pty Ltd (refer reference section at the end of
this report for hyperlinks to reports).
The historic sampling returned 44 samples out of 481 exceeding 0.10% Cu with maximum
of copper of 0.36%. The rock chip sampling is confined to low level hilly outcrops that trend
northeast. The primary source of copper is currently.
The copper anomaly strikes northwest, the same direction as AGC’s 15km Boxdale to
Carlisle Reefs gold trend 20km to the north (ASX AGC Boxdale delivers further near surface
gold, 5 July 2022). This may imply the mineralisation event is controlled by a similar
structure pattern, which subsequently leads to increased mineral prospectivity of both
prospects.
The copper at Ootha is hosted within a Siluro-devonian aged volcano-sedimentary basin,
with deformed mudstones and volcaniclastic rocks. A series of northwest trending
structures associated with anticline/synclines forms are believed to control the anomalous
trend. The world class CSA Mine near Cobar is an example of a basin hosted, structurally-
controlled copper deposit.
Copper is typically chemically scavenged by oxidised iron and manganese in the regolith
which is also likely at the Ootha target and with such consistent high concentrations
(>0.10%) and spread across great distances demonstrates strong potential for a
substantial primary copper source waiting to be found.
Roadside sampling and confirmation by pXRF analysis has already been undertaken to
confirm the presence of the copper anomaly and validate the historic sampling data.