Perth, Western Australia — A major gold porphyry has been discovered at the Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan.
In June, Perth-based Tethyan Copper announced significant drill test results at the site, including a best intersection of 51 metres at more than 1 gram gold per tonne.
The project, in the Chagai Hills of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, is now home to three major high-grade porphyry discoveries. For Tethyan, which controls Reko Diq through an alliance with
The new H35 porphyry system is situated between the existing western porphyries and the advanced-stage H4 Starter project and would have been discovered earlier by previous explorers but for problems experienced with drilling.
Percussion drill hole RDRC-142 and diamond drill hole RDDT-150 both intersected high-grade gold mineralization and moderate copper mineralization from surface to depths of 251 metres and 363 metres, respectively.
The last 51 metres of RDRC-142 intersected 1.05 grams gold per tonne, while RDDT-150 yielded best intersections of 129 metres at 0.83 gram gold per tonne and 27 metres at 1 gram per tonne.
All holes were mineralized over their entire lengths, and the porphyry system was open. No holes passed into barren rock at depth.
Managing director David Moore says the discovery came at a time when the bankable feasibility study for the H4 Starter project was building momentum. “The exploration and resource drilling program is moving ahead rapidly,” he said. “We are already drilling our next target, the H11 porphyry system, and will shortly move on to the H27 porphyry system. After that, there is still the Kohi-Dalil complex and the Parrah Koh system, as well as others that need more work before drilling.”
Kohi-Dalil appears to contain a leached cap as well as three separate copper-gold porphyries.
“At some point we’ll have to stop drilling new systems and start upgrading the ones we have,” Moore said. “Right now we have more targets than seems reasonable for any one company.”
Tethyan has an option to acquire Reko Diq from BHP.
H4 has an indicated resource of 93 million tonnes grading 0.73% copper, from which a probable reserve of 78 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper has been estimated. Another 15 million tonnes of inferred resources grade 0.57% copper. The figures are based on a cutoff grade of 0.3% copper.
The four Western porphyries, taken together, have an inferred resource of 729 million tonnes grading 0.64% copper and 0.4 gram gold per tonne, based on a cutoff copper grade of 0.5%. In combination with 14 other known mineralized porphyry bodies, these resources have the potential to make Reko Diq one of the largest undeveloped copper resources in the world.
Tethyan has exclusive rights to explore, develop and mine the site. BHP Billiton’s claw-back provision does not include the H4 project.
The four leases included in the project cover some 4,000 sq. km of the Tethyan Magmatic Arc, a relatively unexplored copper belt.
— This article originally appeared in Australia’s Paydirt magazine.
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