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coPPeR sPotLIGHt

First move delivers major

boost for Encounter

iven his company’s reputation for being tion over the last 30-40 years. election on the earn-in and JV agreement,
Ga first mover in a future exploration hot- “It’s the least understood of the deposit signed last September, was expected in
spot, Encounter Resources Ltd managing models for major copper deposits and I May.
director Will Robinson’s prediction that the think there’s a whole lot of learnings out of Robinson said not much had changed
Northern Territory could soon become the oil and gas exploration in these basins that for his company, other than the phone was
world’s premier destination for sediment- can be applied into sediment-hosted cop- ringing a bit more in light of copper’s recent
hosted copper deposits cannot be ignored. per that could result in a step change and price surge.
Encounter recently bolstered its copper quick success. It’s an exciting time to be in “Probably more pertinent for us is the
portfolio in the NT to a total of eight pro- the Territory.” amount of interest from major mining com-
jects covering circa 21,000sq km in the One of the water bore samples collected panies in early-stage copper projects and
highly prospective but vastly underexplored from Jessica and tested using handheld frontier copper projects in first world juris-
Greater McArthur Basin located between XRF returned 1.5% copper. Visual inspec- dictions,” he said.
the major copper-gold producing districts of tion of this 3m interval also confirmed the “I think we’re quite fortuitously positioned
Tennant Creek and Mt Isa. presence of abundant copper carbonate in in places like Western Australia and the
The first-mover opportunity has already the form of malachite. Northern Territory in what is looking to be
attracted the attention of BHP Ltd with the Encounter is also reprocessing a number a significant copper exploration boom over
major weighing up a decision to formalise of seismic lines previously completed by the coming years.”
an option agreement to earn up to 75% of Geoscience Australia on projects such as Encounter was one of the first movers in
the Elliott copper project by spending up to Carrara which Robinson said was proving WA’s Paterson province where vacant ten-
$22 million over 10 years at the time of print. to be a very important tool for targeting. ement blocks are a thing of the past follow-
Encounter plans to mobilise an aircore/ Other copper projects in Encounter’s ing the discoveries of Winu and Haverion in
auger drill rig to the nearby Jessica project burgeoning NT portfolio include Sando- recent years.
this month to determine the lateral extent of ver, Brunchilly, Playford, The Oval and The A new field season has kicked off in the
near-surface, high-grade copper minerali- Edge. Paterson, headlined by a diamond drilling
sation recently identified in water bore cut- “I’ve said to the team to act like there’s programme of up to 1,900m at the Yeneena
tings stored at the NT Geological Survey. already been the first drill intersection into copper-cobalt project as part of the $15 mil-
Robinson said his exploration crew was a new sediment-hosted copper deposit in lion exploration earn-in by IGO Ltd.
seeing “all the ingredients” for a potential this belt…because I think that there’s a high Robinson said his company remains
new field of sedimentary-hosted copper likelihood that will happen in the coming committed to the region where it also has
deposits. years,” Robinson said. the Lamil copper-gold project which is sep-
“We think that this is a globally significant “If that was to occur, to have a potential arate to the IGO earn-in. A recent 10-hole
opportunity for sediment-hosted copper,” new sediment-hosted copper region in a RC drilling programme at the Dune pros-
Robinson told Paydirt. first world jurisdiction like Australia, it’s go- pect struck 132m @ 0.31 g/t gold and 0.11%
“Sediment-hosted copper is a target of ing to be a pretty rare beast.” copper from 87m to end-of-hole, including
a number of the major mining companies Elliott, 200km north of Tennant Creek 22m @ 0.51 g/t gold and 0.24% copper
because it has the ability to produce high- and at major structural intersection on the from 181m.
grade deposits and that’s clearly a focus of southern margin of the Beetaloo Basin, is “I think anyone who has been operating
the industry generally now after an exten- the second largest project in Encounter’s in the Paterson since the discovery of Tel-
sive period of the porphyry-style explora- NT portfolio behind Jessica. The BHP fer and Nifty knows that there is more to be
found up there,” he said.
“When you look at what’s happened with
Winu and Haverion, I think there’s going to
be ongoing success in this region for years
to come. And I think we’re well positioned
with both IGO and our 100% ground.”
A diamond rig is expected to arrive at
Lamil this month to follow up the recent RC
drilling. Robinson said that rig or possibly
another pending availability would then
move across to Tanami/West Arunta for
some EIS co-funded drilling to test some
promising gold targets.
“We still think that gold is going to be a
very important part of the future portfolio
mix for Encounter,” he said.
Encounter field technician Lachlan Bewick using handheld XRF to analyse historical water – Michael Washbourne
bores stored by the Northern Territory Geological Survey for potential copper content

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