On 29 April 2022, Metallica announced it had met the MOU’s expenditure commitments to earn 25% of the project and had made the decision to move to the second stage, increasing its interest to 51% through spending an additional $700,000 on exploration prior to 27 April 2023.
Metallica has drilled two diamond holes at Clermont, RDD019 and RDD020, totalling 1,030.4m. The two holes were drilled to test a possible copper gold exploration target withing the Rosevale Porphyry Corridor.
Porphyry style alteration was intersected in both drill holes, with potassic and phyllic alteration observed in both and with the intensity of alteration increasing with depth. Sulphide mineralisation in the form of iron pyrite, chalcopyrite and molybdenum was also observed in the core removed from both holes.
On 13 July 2022, Metallica reported assay results for the two diamond drill holes. Anomalous copper was recorded in both drill holes, with grades ranging from 5ppm Cu to 1,840ppm Cu in hole RDD019 and 2ppm to 3,460ppm Cu in RDD020. Molybdenum grades ranged from <1ppm Mo to 312 ppm Mo in RDD019 and from <1ppm Mo to 87ppm Mo in RDD020. Gold grades ranged from <0.01 to 0.11 Au in RDD019 and from <0.01 ppm Au to 1.75 g/t Au in RDD020.
The assay data showed a distinct increase in copper mineralisation with hole depth, with the highest copper assays recorded at the base of each hole. The same trend was also evident with silver assays in RDD020. The highest recorded gold assays occurred in the bottom 30m of RDD020, with the highest gold intercept of 2m @ 1.69 g/t Au recorded in hole RDD020 from 475m.
Geochemical modelling, especially of the tin and tungsten assays, indicated that both drill holes possibly intersected the porphyry immediately above or adjacent to the expected location of the more mineralised core.
This work indicated that a potential porphyry target may be located beneath the depth of the current drilling and extending one of the holes to test this was warranted. Hole RDD020 will be extended by an additional 500m to 1,000m to determine if the copper, gold and silver grades continue to increase with depth and if the intensity of the alteration also increases.
On 4 July 2023, Metallica announced assay results for the extension to diamond drill hole RDD020 drilled in April and May 2023. Under the terms of the MOU with Diatreme, on the completion of this drill hole, Metallica has met the expenditure condition to move to a 51% share of the Clermont Project. Further information is available from Metallica’s ASX release dated 4 July 2023.