Chesterfield Resources plc announced that it had started percussion drilling as part of its 2021 enlarged and integrated base and precious metals exploration campaign in Cyprus.
Following a diamond drill programme at the end of 2020, the miner is exploring for further deposits of copper, gold, zinc and silver with a current focus on its Troodos West group of licences.
The company aims to discover several volcanogenic massive sulphides (VMS) deposits in close proximity to each other to create a mining project with a centralised processing unit.
OPERATIONS
Chesterfield is drilling some 15 percussion drill holes during April and May to test target zones for the presence of blind sulphide mineralisation and to provide boreholes for a downhole EM (electro-magnetic) survey.
The percussion holes will generally be drilled to a depth of 150-250m in order to increase the scope of the surveys.
The holes will be lined to enable a high precision probe to be winched down each one. The probe acts as a receiver to an electrically charged copper loop on the surface.
VMS deposits act as good electrical conductors and their conductivity can be picked up by the downhole receiver.
Chesterfield said that interpretation of the electromagnetic data gathered would potentially identify sulphide deposits some 50m to 100m from around the hole, therefore increasing the search area of each one.
The company’s main diamond drill programme is due to begin in May 2021.
PERCUSSION DRILLING
Percussion drilling is low cost at around 15% of comparable diamond drilling per metre, and quick with a one hole completed per day.
The drilling tests target stratigraphy and the presence of sulphides up to a limited depth. Samples will be split, dried and assayed by a portable XRF.
Drilling is quick with one hole taking one day to complete and, because the percussion drill is in Cyprus, Chesterfield has no mobilisation costs.
Percussion drilling cannot report accurate mineralisation widths and grades but it can identify the presence of minerals such as copper and zinc, and their stratigraphic position along with an indication of the thickness of mineralisation.
Chesterfield added that the percussion drilling results could significantly de-risk follow-up diamond drilling campaigns.