Chesterfield Resources plc said it had exercised the right to acquire a further 672 claims to more than double the size of its Adeline copper project in Labrador, Canada.
The initial purchase of 129 km2 from mining royalty company Altius Minerals has now been extended to a district-scale 297km2 (29,725 ha), with a total of 1,189 claims in one continuous block.
All claims can be renewed after five years, and thereafter at intervals up to a maximum of 30 years.
DATABASE
Chesterfield has also started to analyse and re-model a large volume of exploration work and results on Adeline, dating back to the 1950s.
The database is rich in prospecting, mapping, trenching, geochemistry and geophysics work conducted by exploration companies.
Information includes high quality aerial surveys, such as helicopter-borne magnetics, electromagnetics and radiometric work, and extensive ground geophysical surveys, including IP (induced polarisation) and resistivity surveys.
Many anomalies identified from the historic surveys were never followed up with any detailed field evaluation or drilling.
Chesterfield said that the data was expected to generate a “significant pipeline of quality drill targets” to test for extents of high-grade copper-silver mineralised grey beds.
A technical team is also studying geological structures from sediment-hosted copper deposits elsewhere in the world to help identify similar targets at Adeline.
HISTORIC TRENCHING
Some of the historic trenching results demonstrate continuity of resource-quality thicknesses and grades of rich copper sulphide mineralisation along exposed strike lengths, as well as the potential for unusually strong silver credits.
Whisky Lake: channel samples averaged 7.5m thickness grading 1.25% Cu along a trench-exposed 60m strike length, including one channel sample of 1.5m @ 7.1% Cu, 90.8 g/t Ag
Ellis: an average of 4.2m of thickness was encountered with an average grade of 1.35% Cu, 49.8 g/t Ag along a trench-exposed 60m strike length, including one channel sample of 4.5m @ 2.5% Cu, 94.3 g/t Ag
A drill hole tested the downdip extension of the Ellis trench mineralisation and assayed core at 7.9m @ 1.76% Cu, 56.2 g/t Ag.
“With these new licences, the size of our project is now equivalent to more than five times that of Manhattan and contains approximately 250 known copper prospects,” said executive chairman Martin French.
“We believe our company has secured one of the best new copper explorations plays in the world.”