Dual-listed Orion Minerals has identified new high-priority drill targets on the Carolusberg – Koperberg complex that form part of the Okiep copper project (OCP), in South Africa’s Northern Cape.
The Carolusberg – Koperberg line was first discovered in 1680 and subsequent workings have been intermittently mined from 1850 to 2001.
Newmont and subsequently Gold Fields, who were previously the owners of OCP, undertook extensive drilling and geological mapping during their tenure.
Paper records of the historic exploration have now been digitised and are being modelled by Orion.
“Our geological team at OCP continue to unpack huge value from the historic data that we have secured.
“Using modern three-dimensional Geographic Information System modelling, we are able to get a better understanding of the geological controls which assist in identifying high-priority targets for drill testing,” says Orion MD and CEO Errol Smart.
“We have already demonstrated that the high-quality data allows us to fast-track the re-estimation of resources using historic drill data with a mineral resource of 11.5-million tonnes at 1.4% copper already reported in accordance with Joint Ore Reserves Committee 2012,” he adds.
This resource was confirmed within three months of securing options on the mineral rights and the historic data. Resource estimation work is continuing under the guidance of Paul Matthews, who has joined Orion as group mineral resource manager, Smart says.
He adds that the attention at OCP is now turning to identifying high-quality targets for undiscovered high-grade deposits such as those historically discovered in the Okiep district including the Okiep mine and at Nababeeb South.
“We are focusing on similar geological settings to that of Okiep and Nababeeb South and have identified high-priority targets to be tested on the BCC property which is currently under option to Orion.
“These high-grade deposits are usually found in pipes or blows and have very small dimensions of 150 m to 250 m diameter and were easily missed by historic wide-spaced drilling,” Smart says.