“
Not only is the Main Zone still open at depth, and the Northern
and Southern Zones only sparsely drilled, but we believe there to
be repetitions along strike to the north and south where we have
strong electromagnetic (EM) anomalies present. It is common
to find these Kambalda-type komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide
deposits in clusters, and we have a number of strong geochemical
targets along other ultramafic units in the area. Camelwood was
discovered by geochemical drilling of an EM target.”
Rox’s second significant discovery came in early August 2013
on the back of some excellent detective work and drilling by Rox’s
earn-in partner Teck Australia. Teck and Rox are targeting a large
sedex style zinc-lead ore body at their Teena prospect within the
Reward zinc project similar to the adjacent world-class McArthur
River zinc mine which is located only 10 kilometres away.
Rox and Teck have had a partnership on the Reward zinc
project for nearly three years. During that time Teck has spent
over $5 million and earned a 51% interest. Teck recently opted
to increase its interest to 70% by spending a further $10 million.
In mid-2012 Teck uncovered previous drill data from Teena
that had not been disclosed to the market or Department of Mines
and Petroleum before. The results included significant thicknesses
of zinc mineralisation at significant grades, including 11.3 metres
@ 10.9%
zinc-lead and 8.6 metres @ 9.8% zinc-lead.
“
At the time we made the announcement, the market did
not really respond. These results were new and demonstrated
that there was significant zinc mineralisation at Teena. The drill
intercepts covered an area comparable to the footprint of the
McArthur River ore body but only defined by eight drill holes,
and showed all of the characteristics of McArthur River,” said
Mr Mulholland.
That potential has now been demonstrated with recent drilling
by Teck not only confirming the previous grades and thicknesses,
but the new results actually exceeding the previous results.
The first hole drilled by Teck intersected 26.4 metres @ 13.3%
zinc-lead from 1,060 metres, while the second hole intersected
20.1
metres @ 15.0% zinc-lead from 944 metres.
“
These are very thick intersections of high grade mineralisation
indicating that this is potentially the most important zinc
discovery in Australia in the past 20 years, right on the doorstep
of a world-class operating zinc mine with excellent infrastructure.
“
Drilling is continuing at Teena, with a 5,500 metre drill
program costing about $3.25 million currently underway. All
that needs to be said right now is… watch this space,” concluded
Mr Mulholland.
Twodiscoveries
inoneyearforRox
Ian Mulholland
Managing Director
Rox Resources Ltd
Massive nickel sulphide drill
core from Camelwood
Ian Mulholland (left) and
Exploration Manager, Will Belbin,
examine Camelwood drill core
Just one significant mineral discovery for a junior exploration
company can take many years to achieve and when it does, it
can change the fortunes of that company dramatically – just ask
Sirius or Sandfire Resources. Very few explorers can boast making
two significant discoveries in one year, but this is just what
Rox Resources has done.
The first was at the Mt Fisher nickel project in December 2012,
when Rox announced it had discovered significant nickel sulphide
mineralisation at the Camelwood prospect. Since then the company
has completed over 15,000 metres of diamond core drilling and
5,000
metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling, defining nickel
sulphide mineralisation along a 1.2 kilometre strike length and
down to over 500 metres in depth.
The deposit has been divided into a number of ore shoots
termed the Main, Northern and Southern Zones. Most of the
drilling has occurred on the Main Zone where a thickness of
up to 11 metres of massive, matrix and disseminated nickel
sulphide mineralisation has been defined. The Main Zone is
open at depth, with several deeper holes averaging 5.7% Ni and
0.5
metres thick. The Northern and Southern Zones are still
largely untested by drilling.
Rox Managing Director, Ian Mulholland said the
Camelwood discovery had the potential to be a lot bigger than
currently defined.
Minesite 2013
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