Navarre Minerals has entered the next phase in its hunt for giant copper, with a new drill program commencing this week at its Eclipse copper and gold prospect at Cherrypool.
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The Eclipse prospect is situated 60 kilometres south of Horsham.
It is the Stawell-based mineral explorer's second drill program this year and it follows a successful drilling campaign completed in January.
The results from the first program uncovered an extensive shallow copper-gold zone, starting just 30 metres below the surface which geophysics now shows is connected to a much larger and slightly deeper target.
The current drill campaign will comprise of 25-30 holes of between 60-150 metres in depth for approximately 3000 metres of drilling which is three times the size of the January program.
Macquarie Drilling has been contracted by Navarre Minerals to undertake the drilling program.
Navarre Minerals' Eclipse prospect has been identified as an area that may contain a giant copper ore body that often occur in volcanic belts, such as the Miga Arc.
The Miga Arc is an emerging copper belt located in Western Victoria, extending south of Glenthompson to northwest of Horsham.
In January, drill samples at Eclipse were logged and scanned on-site using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) instrument, similar to an x-ray gun and this will be used again in determining the economic levels of mineralisation contained in the drill samples for instantaneous feedback to geologists.
Navarre Minerals Managing Director, Geoff McDermott is excited by the commencement of the second drill program, particularly after the January findings.
"We're eagerly anticipating results and hope to find a big porphyry copper and gold source to the shallow mineralisation that we encountered in January," Mr McDermott said.
The only obstacle to this second round of drilling will be the weather.
"Our main concern is heavy winter rain because at some stage, it may become too wet for us to be out there," Mr McDermott said.
The program is expected to be completed at the end of this month, with results due in July.