Surefire moves to add copper into critical mineral mix

Surefire Resources is planning a maiden reverse-circulation (RC) drill program at its recently-discovered Phat Boy copper prospect in Western Australia’s Mid West region in a bid to add to its established critical minerals portfolio.

The prospect, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Yidby East project, consists of four coincident copper-zinc anomalous zones and is interpreted to sit within a similar geological and structural setting to 29Metals’ world-class Golden Grove volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposit.

Management says the anomalous zones have been delineated along the margin of an inferred shear zone for about 3km and lie adjacent to an outcropping folded banded-iron formation (BIF). It has plans to investigate the potential for the area to host massive and disseminated sulphide mineralisation.

The Phat Boy prospect sits within the southern portion of its ground, where previous exploration drilling highlighted native copper and sulphides.

The company is conducting follow-up soil sampling across the highly-anomalous copper-zinc zones encountered during its initial soil program on the northern flank of the BIF. It expects to drill-test the most prospective targets generated from the sampling.

Management adds that it has submitted a program of works (PoW) to the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) for its planned 2200m campaign that will comprise 11 RC holes each to a maximum depth of about 200m. It notes existing tracks at the site will enable access, with preparation works for drilling to begin when PoW approval is received.

Surefire is of the view that the high tenor of soil results, coupled with the presence of gossanous material and the previous occurrence of native copper and sulphides, makes this early planning for drilling approvals a prudent step as we advance this exciting program.

The company plans to focus on four target areas – aptly named T1, T2, T3 and T4 – that sit east of its Yidby gold project and the Money geochemical target. Management says the initial soil program identified a significant 5km-long cohesive trend of anomalism, highlighting three zones featuring coincident anomalous zinc for priority follow-up sampling.

The initial program was an outstanding success, unearthing broad-scale, multi-element anomalism with key elements running at or exceeding the selected 100 parts per million threshold, including 310ppm copper, 100ppm zinc, 100ppm cobalt and 452ppm sulphur.

In addition, five rock samples were analysed by the same method, with one delivering anomalous base metal results including 270ppm nickel, 460ppm copper, 200ppm zinc and 100ppm cobalt.

The Phat Boy prospect is about 50km south/south-east of Golden Grove and other nearby VHMS deposits in the same belt. Golden Grove is a multi-commodity VHMS project endowed primarily with copper-lead-zinc-gold-silver mineralisation, containing about 15.1 million tonnes of ore reserves.

Typical VHMS ore deposits comprise mainly copper-zinc mineralisation associated with and produced by volcanic-associated hydrothermal events in submarine environments. They occur within environments dominated by volcanic or volcanic-derived rocks and represent a significant source of the world’s copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver ores.

They often occur as stratiform (flat-lying or domed) accumulations of sulphide minerals that precipitate from hydrothermal fluids on or below the seafloor in various ancient and modern geological settings.

Surefire also plans to become a leading supplier of critical minerals to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

It has the huge Victory Bore project, also in WA’s Mid West, that has a mineral resource of 464 million tonnes at 0.3 per cent vanadium oxide, 5.12 per cent titanium oxide and magnetite iron going 17.7 per cent. It boasts a reserve of 93 million tonnes at marginally higher grades.

Management plans to produce 1.25 million tonnes of a vanadium-titanium magnetite concentrate from the project annually and then use a downstream process to convert the upgraded ore into a myriad of in-demand products.

It recently signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the KSA Ministry of Investment (MISA) and two private Saudi companies. The MOUs have been put in place with a view to completing binding agreements for a joint venture (JV) structure that will establish a framework for investment into Surefire’s flagship Victory Bore vanadium-iron project.

It will have a dual purpose of also developing a mineral processing facility in Saudi Arabia to process magnetite concentrate from Victory Bore.

The company has several “irons” in the fire and it appears to only be a matter of time before one of its projects grabs the market’s full attention.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au