Auroch scores two high-grade zinc projects in world-class SA base metals region

Auroch Minerals (ASX:AOU) today revealed it has penned an agreement to acquire 90 per cent of the Arden Zinc Project and 100 per cent of the Bonaventura Zinc Project, both of which are situated in a world-class South Australian base metals region.

The Bonaventura Project sits in the northern part of Kangaroo Island, and covers highly prospective geology and historic mines along 30 kilometres of strike of the regional-scale Cygnet-Snelling Fault.

Encouragingly, previous drilling at Bonaventura hit high-grade zinc intersections, including:

• 16m at 3.4% zinc and 0.7% lead from 52m(including 6m at 6.3% zinc)
• 11m at 3.1% zinc and 1.5% lead from 26m (including 1m at 8.0% zinc)

Further to that, samples from the historic Kohinoor gold mine returned grades up to 28 grams per tonne of gold.

Here, there are several high-grade zinc and gold targets that are drill-ready.

The Arden Zinc Project, on the other hand, is located 35 kilometres to the northeast of Quorn, some 3.5 hours’ drive north from Adelaide along highways and sealed roads.

This project has potential to host large-scale zinc, lead, copper and cobalt stratiform sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposits.

An expansive 710 square kilometre exploration licence has been granted, with several key mineralised targets already identified within the tenure.

Here, there are multiple assays of 9-10 per cent zinc and 0.1 per cent cobalt in historic trench-sampling over a strike length of 1.5 kilometres, with a total strike length of the prospective geological unit of over 10 kilometres.

Moreover, recent sampling at the Kanyaka target within the Arden tenement yielded up to 2.5 per cent cobalt.

Importantly, this project is supported by excellent infrastructure including rail, sealed roads and grid power, which will bode well for AOU should it manage to discover something substantial.

AOU executive chairman, Glenn Whiddon, said: “The Arden Project and Bonaventura Project in South Australia comprise a substantial zinc, lead and copper play supported by excellent infrastructure.”

“The projects cover several historical mines and provide multiple targets. This acquisition provides Auroch with multiple drill-ready targets for large scale base-metal mineralisation that will be systematically evaluated in 2018,” added Whiddon.

Of course, as with all minerals exploration, success is not guaranteed — consider your own personal circumstances before investing, and seek professional financial advice.

Exploration: moving forward

AOU has planned an aggressive systematic exploration program for both the Arden and Bonaventura Projects.

At Arden, site reconnaissance mapping, rock chip and soil-sampling will begin immediately in the known target areas. A portable XRF will be used to quickly cover large areas with tightly-spaced soil samples — results will be used to recognise important vectors to mineralisation.

At the Bonaventura Project, re-processing and interpretation of the existing high-resolution geophysical data will begin immediately. In parallel, site reconnaissance mapping, rock chip and soil sampling of the known target areas will commence.

For both projects, the necessary permitting and access agreements will be completed for the generated target areas so that maiden drilling program for the highest priority targets can begin in the second quarter this year.

AOU intends to spend over $1.3 million on exploration in the first 12 months.