Victorian Copper

Ararat Project

By spending $1 million on exploration, in two stages, over four years, the company can acquire a 75% interest in the Ararat project which has the potential to enhance the development of the Stavely and Ararat copper deposits. Having completed Stage 1 earning requirements of the Ararat Farm-in the company now controls 51% of the project.

The Ararat project tenements (EL3019, EL4758 and EL5076), located east of the Grampians National Park and about 40 kilometres north-east of the Stavely project, cover 151 square kilometers in western Victoria.

The Ararat copper deposit has an inferred resource of 0.7 million tonnes at 2.7% copper, 0.8 grams per tonne gold and 9 grams per tonne silver. It was discovered in 1975, has been drilled to a depth of 200 metres, and has not been mined. The best intersection to date is 4.5 metres at 12% copper and 8.1 grams of gold per tonne. This deposit has the potential to provide supplementary high-grade feed to a Thursdays Gossan processing plant, and flotation results from metallurgical testwork of the oxides and sulphides were good, with recoveries as expected and the production of a high grade, clean concentrate without smelter penalty constituents.

Infill and extensional drilling of this copper deposit commenced in October 2009. All four diamond drillholes (ARD001-04) intersected strong copper sulphide mineralisation, with the best intercept of 3.1 metres at 3.1% copper recorded in ARD003. Shallow, angled reverse circulation drilling also confirmed the presence of oxide mineralisation, to a depth of about 30 metres, above the sulphide mineralisation. The best intercepts from the reverse circulation drilling are 9 metres at 1.9% copper from 22 metres in ARC003, 5 metres at 2.9% copper from 8 metres in ARC006 and 7 metres at 1.7% copper from 10 metres in ARC005.

Ararat Long Section