Horseshoe Metals' unleashes near surface 23m at 4.2% copper hit at Horseshoe Lights Thursday, August 16, 2012 by John Phillips This hit is only one of many high grade results released today. Historical production at Horseshoe Lights is over 110,000t DSO, which draws comparisons to Sandfire Resources' De Grussa project - which is looking at producing 140,000t of DSO. Horseshoe Metals appears to have only scratched the surface at the project - and investors will be watching results from the next 4000 metres of drilling closely.
Horseshoe Metals (ASX: HOR) has delivered what can simply be referred to as outstanding copper intersections immediately north of the historic Horseshoe Lights open pit, which is part of the wholly owned Horseshoe Lights copper gold project in the Peak Hill Mineral Field of Western Australia.
Reverse circulation drilling highlights from the North West Stringer Zone include:
- 23 metres at 4.2% copper from 43 metres, including 8 metres at 8.6% copper; - 24 metres at 3.1% copper from 39 metres, including 7 metres at 6.7% copper; and - 11 metres at 2.0% copper from 52 metres, including 1 metre at 11.7% copper.
This zone is located immediately north - west of the Main Zone of high grade mineralisation which was the focus of mining in the historic Horseshoe Lights open pit.
The results don't stop there, and over at the Motters Zone highlights included; 39 metres at 1.6% copper from surface, including 4 metres at 3.7% copper and 2 metres at 3.9% copper; and 19 metres at 1.1% copper from 1 metre.
Motters is located just 100 metres north-east of the existing open pit and is considered to be a parallel zone of copper mineralisation to the Main Zone.
These high grade results continue to flow from the project, which around a fortnight ago delivered 14 metres at 3.9% copper from 25 metres, including 3 metres at 6.2% copper.
Drilling continues to target copper mineralisation north of the existing open pit in the North West, Main and Motters zones, with another 4000 metres of combined diamond and reverse circulation drilling to be completed before the end of 2012.
Neil Marston, managing director, spoke to Proactive Investors today and said that the new drilling will test down dip and down plunge of the Main Zone. Drilling will also include a follow-up of shallow exploration targets outside of the immediate pit area - which have not been adequately tested by previous exploration efforts.
All this data will lead to a highly anticipated updated minerals resource in early 2013, which currently stands at 8.6 million tonnes at 1.06% copper and 0.13g/t gold at 0.5% cut-off grade for 91,000 tonnes of copper and 37,400 gold ounces.
Horseshoe Metals will then be able to follow the resource update with a Preliminary Feasibility Study.
In other Horseshoe Metals news, drilling will re-commence at the highly prospective Kumarina project in September, which is located in the Bangemall Basin which already hosts several base metal projects.
Analysis: Comparisons to De Grussa
While comparisons are often difficult, Horseshoe Lights is demonstrating significant promise.
Historical production at the project is over 110,000 tonnes of direct shipping ore, which draws comparisons to Sandfire Resources' (ASX: SFR) massive De Grussa project - which is looking at producing 140,000 tonnes of direct shipping ore - at around the same grade as the historical production at Horseshoe Lights.
Now consider that Horseshoe Metals has a market cap of $12 million and cash of $2.5 million (June 30 2012), the market is placing a valuation of less than $10 million on the company's projects - which not only includes Horseshoe Lights - but another potential "company maker" in Kumarina.
With ongoing exploration success across two projects, the current share price of around $0.16 will not last for long.
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