White Energy Company Limited (ASX: WEC) has released the results of its recent drilling campaign at the Coronation prospect in South Australia, part of its Robin Rise project. The drilling program, which totaled 1,706 metres across six holes, confirmed the presence of key lithologies known to host major iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineral deposits. The Coronation prospect is situated within the Olympic Dam G9 structural corridor and Geoscience Australia IOCG domain.
The drilling tested structural, geochemical, and geophysical targets. Lithologies intersected included massive gabbroic and megacrystic granitoid bodies, syenite, granitic gneiss, schist, dolerite, and magnetite gabbro. Early geological observations indicated rare blebby copper sulphides and thin monomictic haematite breccia zones in gneiss, consistent with IOCG-style mineralisation.
Assay results from core samples did not reflect the anomalous values seen in biochemical and ionic soil sampling. However, one core sample in hole C24C04 recorded 296 ppm Cu, 71 times the background copper values, suggesting potential for mineralisation in the presence of magnetite altered gabbro. Ionic soil sampling results did not return material anomalies, except for weakly anomalous uranium results, with a maximum value of 16.95 ppb.
The company is not planning further on-ground exploration work on EL6566, while it focuses its on-ground exploration activities at its other exploration projects.
While the drilling program has defined the wider distribution of Mt Woods and Balta Granite aged equivalents, with haematite and red-rock alteration intersected in C24C02 and a magnetic target in C24C05, the true prospectivity of the Coronation prospect is yet to be determined. All rehabilitation related to the drilling program has been completed.
