Norfolk to re-look at historic core for Chilean gold

Ben Phillips, chairman of Norfolk Metals, said: “The RC drilling phase is nearing completion with the inclusion of the previously planned DDH rings that will be drilled in the RC phase. These new RC rings include significant confirmatory drilling. Reanalysis of the historic high-grade intercept diamond core, including gold analysis, has also begun.”

The company has stated that it expects to release all RC drilling analyzes following completion of drilling and compilation and interpretation of all relevant data from the program together with the accompanying plans and sections.

It is expected to be in a position to deliver all the information later in the quarter – including confirmatory RC twins of historical drillings – one of which reached 63 meters at 1.45% copper from just 45 metres; 24 million were 2.15% copper and 14 million were 1.77% copper.

With the imminent completion of the RC works, the diamond drilling rig will take center stage with up to 15 diamond drill holes of 2575 meters to be drilled 24/7 to explore deeper sulphide potential beneath the near-surface oxide mantle.

The focus has sharpened on the west flank of Section 10,000NE, where RC drilling is planned to confirm high copper grades associated with structural expansion conditions along the hanging wall of the Tabaco Thrust.

Standing out from the confirmation catches planned for the diamond phase, this part of the RC drilling program aims to supplement the project’s 5.6 million tonnes historic foreign NI 43-101 copper oxide resource with 0.6% copper.

This resource has not been reported in accordance with the JORC Code and has not yet been subjected to sufficient study for the foreign estimate to be classified as a JORC compliant Mineral Resource.

However, if sufficient work can be done on this portion of the deposit, it may represent a future JORC compliant resource ready for expansion, possibly through heap leach development.

To achieve stronger support for data integrity, Norfolk opted for several diamond holes drilled by IPBX in 2006; these are re-registered and cut to provide quarter cores to be retested for copper and gold, focusing on high-grade zones to confirm polymetallic potential.

IPBX is a now defunct Canadian junior mining company that was active in the mid-2000s. In 2006, he carried out diamond drilling in the Tabaco region and reached high-grade copper sections below the resource.

Selected intercepts retested in high-grade oxide zones within the foreign resource include a 31-metre historical hole where 1.21% copper tested from 24 metres; and a second hole yielding 27.5 m of copper at 1.12% from 1.5 m, including 1.88% copper from 11.5 m.

A third hole included a 19.4m cut at 0.61% copper from 4.6m, which included a higher grade segment of 7.4m at 1.45% copper, while the fourth hole yielded a standout 4m at 3.67% copper from 20 metres, including 2m at 7.22% copper.

In addition to the near-surface oxide potential, Norfolk is also looking at deeper strikes of IPBX beneath the foreign source, which is also on target for verification.

The selected holes include a hole reaching 26 m from 29 m with 1.58% copper, while a second hole provides a 63 m stroke with 1.45% copper.

A third hole to be retested below the resource was recorded from a depth of 66 m to 52 m at 0.92% copper

Norfolk also gained access to the 7.5 km long Higueritas Belt, approximately 2.5 km southeast of the Carmen–Tabaco–Dolores outbound.

The Higueritas Belt roughly parallels the Carmen-Tabaco trend and is largely untested, but Norfolk has identified strong surface indicators of copper mineralization from initial access work and prospecting in the northern part of the belt.

Exploration mapping at Higueritas has identified several ancient copper workings that appear to be associated with northeast-southwest and north-south striking structures bounded by zone-scale faults from northwest to northwest.

Strong copper oxide mineralization has been detected along a mapped north-south to north-northeast structure within a volcanic breccia that appears to be associated with a strong IP rechargeability anomaly at 250 meters depth.

Norfolk also plans to drill a follow-up diamond drill hole to test a large incidental IP anomaly on this area along the 200 m wide breccia main structure.

Channel chip and panel samples from mineralized outcrops were sent to the Australian Laboratory Services for analysis, while two RC holes, each 150 m deep, were planned to probe deeper beneath the surface oxides and investigate the interpreted upper zone of the IP anomaly.

Encouragingly, there are four different strong IP anomalies ranging in attack length from 0.5 to 1.5 km across the belt, for a total attack of approximately 5 km, which is being prepared for further mapping, soil sampling and targeting.

Spreading over an area of ​​46.6 square kilometers in 22 licenses in Chile’s Huasco Province, the Carmen-Tabaco Belt is 8.5 km long and hosts many significant structures of copper-silver-gold mineralization, some of which are regional in scale.

The reference to low-grade gold is historical and is taken from previous explorer IPBX’s drilling at Tabaco/Carmen; this drilling exhibited trace gold consistent in the range of 0.1-0.3 g/t gold with copper-silver mineralization in skarn and breccia and was referenced in the NI 43-101 foreign resource estimate (5.6 Mt @ 0.6% copper) referenced by Norfolk.

The near-surface oxide deposit at Carmen appears ideal for low-strip, fast-payback operations under Chile’s global copper dominance.

With drilling humming and new prospective belts opening up, Norfolk is moving quickly to unravel the structures, geochemistry and extent of mineralization of Carmen’s oxide mantle and the underlying sulphide zone in the world’s largest copper port, which may also hold some gold.

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