The Company’s Paterson Project is located in the Paterson Province of Western Australia, host to several large copper and copper-gold deposits and recent discoveries. The project tenements are interpreted to contain host formations and structures common to the major mineral deposits in the area. The Company is primarily targeting copper and copper-gold deposits in the Paterson region.
Carawine’s Paterson Project tenements.
Cable (E45/5510)
The Cable tenement is located about 60km north of the Nifty copper deposit and is contiguous with the West Paterson JV Baton tenement. Several new copper, gold, lead, and zinc prospects have been identified along the “Warroo Trend” from historic mapping, surface sampling and shallow AC (vacuum) drilling, as follows.
The Warroo Trend sits along a syncline in Archaean-aged Hardy Formation rocks, located to the west of the Vines Fault. The trend was discovered by previous explorers in the 1980s from mapping of a rock sequence comprising interlayered chloritic phyllites, wackes, sedimentary carbonates, carbonate-altered intermediate to mafic volcanics, and felsic and mafic intrusives over a strike length of more than 10km. The trend is named after the historic “Warroo Prospect”, which sits at the southern end of the trend, just outside the Cable tenement.
The rocks along the Warroo Trend are strongly folded, metamorphosed to upper greenschist/lower amphibolite facies, with extensive laminar cherty quartz veins exposed. This geology is strongly suggestive of a potential submarine bimodal volcanic sequence prospective for polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits. The cherty quartz veins are weakly gossanous, malachite stained, and strongly anomalous in copper, gold, zinc and lead.
Cable tenement drill hole collars, TargetEM conductivity and regional geology.
Extensive rock chip sampling of the volcanics, veining and gossans along the Warroo Trend within the Cable tenement returned the following value ranges (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022):
The peak historic Cu (5.4%), Pb (0.25%), Zn (0.99%), Ag (19.5ppm) and As (3,040ppm) rock chip values define the Warroo North Prospect, with the highest Zn value of 0.99% associated with gossanous cherty quartz veins with malachite and smithsonite staining. Warroo North also returned the highest recorded gold geochemical value from historic work in the area, with 0.65ppm gold returned from a single bulk loam concentrate sample taken within a 2km x 1.25km area mapped as “prospector loaming” (a large area of historic gold prospecting activity).
The Warroo NE Prospect comprises a ~1km x 500m Cu (5ppm to 1,900ppm) and Zn (5ppm to 1,000ppm) anomaly in two lines of 300m x 100m spaced soil samples, and quartz vein subcrop, and an associated 1km x 500m Cu (200ppm to 528ppm) anomaly in shallow vacuum AC drill samples (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022).
Previous explorers completed a 500m x 500m spaced tractor-mounted shallow vacuum AC drilling program designed to sample bedrock just below the base of transported material along the Warroo Trend, with sample depths ranging from 3m to 12m. Results from the program defined a 10km x 2km, >100ppm Cu and closely associated >100ppm Zn anomalous trend within the Cable tenement, containing several higher grade zones of up to 1,500ppm Cu, and up to 1,630ppm Zn (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022).
The extent and tenor of the copper-gold-lead-zinc-silver anomalism, associated with gossanous cherty quartz veining within a bimodal volcano-sedimentary rock package represents an excellent target area for exploration at Cable. There is also high potential for complex folding, block faulting and accommodation zones within the Broadhurst Formation in the Cable tenement, east of the Vines Fault. These structural elements are considered favourable for the formation of Nifty-style mineralisation, with this potential largely untested to date.
Carawine has completed a helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey over the Cable tenement utilising Expert Geophysics Limited’s “TargetEM” system, and a 312-hole drilling program along the Warroo Trend. Significant intervals recevied from the drilling at both prospect areas are considered worthy of follow up, with deeper drilling beneath and adjacent to the intervals likely. The areas of anomalous zinc and copper, in particular those located above or adjacent to TargetEM conductive anomalies, are also likely to be targets for further drilling, including deeper drilling across the areas and direct targeting of the TargetEM conductors at depth (refer ASX announcements 1 & 24 July, 2024).
Cable drilling program maximum copper in drill holes, >300ppm zinc contours and TargetEM conductive anomalies on interpreted drill hole geology.
Baton Tenements
The Baton tenements (E45/4841 & E45/4955) are located about 100km north of the Nifty copper deposit, with historic workers identifying copper, lead and zinc mineralisation hosted by dolomitic breccia in a sequence of dolomite, carbonaceous siltstone and carbonaceous shale of the Broadhurst Formation (host to the Nifty deposit). From October 2019 until their withdrawal in May 2024, Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd ("RTX") explored the Baton tenements under the West Paterson farm-in and joint venture agreement (“WPJVA”). The tenements have now been returned and are now 100% held and managed by Carawine.
A review of targets generated by Carawine prior to the WPJVA, and targets generated and/or advanced by RTX, including assessment of the effectiveness of RTX’s 12-hole RC drilling program completed in 2023 concluded that all the Baton targets remain prospective, with several higher priority targets identified for potential drilling in 2025, as follows:
BEM001 is a discrete conductive airborne electromagnetic (“AEM”) anomaly and coincident gravity high identified by RTX in 2021 (refer ASX announcement 27 October 2021). RTX drilled one hole (CWBA0011) targeting the anomaly and returned an anomalous copper interval of 2m @ 1,115ppm Cu from 54m, above the targeted anomaly depth (refer ASX announcement 29 January 2024). It is not clear from the work completed to date whether the BEM001 anomaly was effectively tested by CWBA0011. Follow-up work planned at BEM001 includes modelling of the conductive anomaly source and further drilling using existing access tracks and drill sites.
Buzzer is a conceptual, structurally hosted mineralisation target developed by RTX in 2022. Four RC holes were drilled on a 1km-spaced grid as an initial test in 2023, with one hole returning an anomalous interval of 2m @ 0.23ppm Au from 146m with elevated Ag (9.25ppm) and As (19ppm) values (CWBA0005) (refer ASX announcement 29 January 2024). Closer-spaced, follow-up drilling of the elevated Au-Ag-As interval in CWBA0005 is warranted, with existing access and cleared sites available.
Herb is a 3km-long, complex, strong magnetic high anomaly located adjacent to the Vines Fault defined by Carawine in 2019 as a potential iron-oxide copper-gold target (“IOCG”) (refer ASX announcement 8 July 2019). RTX drilled two RC holes across the southern end of Herb (CWBA0001 and CWBA0002), intersecting phyllite, amphibolite and metasediment and patchy iron and potassic alteration in both drill holes. CWBA0001 also returned an anomalous interval of 6m @ 1,220ppm Cu, from 80m in quartz-veined, goethite and haematite-altered metasandstone (refer ASX announcement 29 January 2024). Much of Herb remains untested, and results from the limited drilling to date are encouraging. Additional modelling of the magnetic anomaly, ahead of further drilling, is planned.
BEM006 is a discrete conductive AEM anomaly and coincident gravity high identified by RTX in 2021 (refer ASX announcement 27 October 2021) which has not been drilled. Modelling of the source of the anomaly is planned, with potential for drill testing with heritage-cleared access already in place.
Javelin and Wheeler are coincident magnetic and gravity anomalies identified by Carawine in 2019 and remain largely untested, with no drilling at Javelin and only one hole drilled by RTX into the northern magnetic anomaly at Wheeler (refer ASX announcements 27 August 2019 and 29 January 2024). Drilling programs will be designed to advance these targets, starting with Javelin where heritage clearance is in place.
Programs will be also designed to advance other targets including AEM anomalies BEM002, BEM003 and BEM005, and magnetic anomalies at Nolan, HE and Discus, but at a lower priority to the targets described above (refer ASX announcements 8 July and 27 August 2019, and 27 October 2021).
Baton tenements E45/4871 and E45/4955 prospects, drill holes, magnetic image and geology.
Baton Zinc
The review also assessed the historic Baton Zinc prospect which remains a target of interest, with zinc mineralisation hosted by dolomite breccias associated with a major NNW-trending, ENE-dipping fault, above a regionally significant magnetic anomaly.
Anomalous intervals reported from historic RC and diamond drilling at the Baton Zinc prospect range from 6m up to 26m in width from depths of 98m to 161m, with grades ranging from 0.2% up to 0.5% Zn, along a strike length exceeding 2km (refer ASX announcement 19 February 2019). Associated anomalous lead (0.1 to 0.4% Pb) and copper (0.1 to 0.2% Cu) is also reported in historic drilling. Further work is required to establish any vectors to higher grade mineralised zones, and to examine the possibility that the accumulation of zinc represents a halo to a larger, deeper mineralised system.
Red Dog
The Red Dog tenement (E45/4881) is located approximately 16km northeast of the Nifty copper mine in moderately deformed, low grade metasedimentary rocks along the NW margin of the Yeneena Basin. The tenement is considered prospective for stratiform Cu-Co deposits, e.g. Nifty and Maroochydore, sediment-hosted Pb-Zn deposits, e.g. Warrabarty within the upper Broadhurst and Isdell Formations, and intrusion-related gold and copper mineralisation, e.g. Havieron, Telfer.
Red Dog was also subject to the WPJVA, and is now 100% held and managed by Carawine.
In addition to targets generated from the work of previous explorers, Carawine completed a detailed VTEM™ Max helicopter-borne electromagnetic ("VTEM") survey with the aim of delineating discrete conductive anomalies associated with sulphide mineralisation (e.g. Rio Tinto’s Winu discovery) or resistive zones associated with alteration (e.g. silica-dolomite alteration associated with the Nifty copper deposit).
The VTEM survey completed prior to the WPJVA was successful in identifying twelve conductive and four resistive anomalies in new areas and at previously identified prospects. After entering the WPJVA, RTX’s review of the Red Dog tenement confirmed multiple high priority potential targets at prospects defined by Carawine, and the potential for new targets to be identified. Magnetic and VTEM anomalies located proximal to interpreted intrusives and/or within favourable structural locations in the Earl, Duke, Bravo and Leatherneck areas were confirmed as warranting further screening and testing. New targets defined by RTX included Clouser and Marquess, discrete, resistive AEM anomalies within Broadhurst Formation shale, interpreted as potential analogues to the Nifty copper deposit (located within the Flying Tiger and Leatherneck prospect areas respectively); and WB (Earl) within a broad, resistive AEM anomaly on the edge of a large interpreted felsic intrusion within the Malu and Puntapunta Formations (host to the Telfer gold-copper deposit) (refer ASX announcements 19 February and 29 July 2019 and 6 October 2021).
Red Dog conductivity image and targets (note: diagram pre-dates RTX withdrawal from the WPJVA).
RTX completed an initial phase of RC drilling over the Ghost and Zulu prospects in 2021, with trace levels of base metal (copper, zinc, lead) sulphides encountered (ASX announcement 27 April 2022). One hole was attempted at the Marquess (Adams) target as part of RTX's 2023 drilling campaign, however the drill hole was abandoned at 78m in cover units due to difficult ground conditions.
As with Baton, the Company is now assessing the exploration data acquired and generated by RTX at Red Dog, and will integrate this with its knowledge of the region to re-prioritise existing, and generate new, targets across the tenement.
Magnus (E45/5520)
At the Magnus tenement, located within 600m of the Nifty Operations waste dumps and extending about 20km to the north, a conceptual copper target named “Europe” has been identified from work by previous explorers.
The Europe target is located in the core and on the flanks of a large northwest-trending fold structure interpreted from ground and airborne electromagnetic surveys and drill data and has the potential for the formation of copper sulphides analogous to the style and setting of mineralisation at the Nifty deposit. The target was developed by previous explorers as an extension to their Citadel prospect, with seven drill holes located within the Magnus tenement proposed to test the target. Despite multiple programs proposed from 2007, the target remains untested and is therefore considered ready to drill (refer ASX announcement 18 October 2022).
Europe target on VTEM conductivity image.
Coolbro JV (Fortescue 51%, earning to 75%)
The “Coolbro JV” is a farm-in and joint venture agreement with FMG Resources Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (“Fortescue”), whereby Fortescue has the right to earn up to a 75% interest in the Lamil Hills, Trotman South and Eider tenements by spending $6.1 million in the seven years to November 2026. Fortescue has satisfied the conditions required to earn a 51% beneficial interest in the Coolbro JV tenements (“Stage 1 Earn-In”), and has elected to earn an additional 24% interest in the tenements by sole-funding $4.5 million (in addition to the $1.6 million incurred to satisfy the Stage 1 Earn-In) of exploration expenditure on the Coolbro JV tenements by the end of 2026, during which Carawine will be free carried. Fortescue is managing and operating exploration activities whilst it is farming-in.
Trotman South is located 27km south of the Telfer gold mine and has many of the structural elements normally associated with gold deposits in the Telfer region, i.e. domes/anticlines and WNW to NW-striking faults. Interpreted demagnetised zones in otherwise strongly magnetic layers in gabbro-monzonite sills, could represent discrete alteration halos to gold mineralisation, with anomalous bedrock intersections in Rotary Air Blast (“RAB”) drilling occurring adjacent to one such zone. Base metal (Zn, Co) anomalism in historic drilling also occurs within the tenement, associated with a variety of dolomitic sediments and intrusive bodies, indicating the potential for both sediment-hosted and intrusion related (skarn) styles of gold and base metal mineralisation.
Eider is located 35km southwest of Newcrest’s Telfer gold operations and 35km southeast of Metals X’s Nifty copper operations near the edge of the Waukarlycarly Embayment, with geology most similar to that hosting the Nifty and Maroochydore copper-cobalt deposits.
Lamil Hills, approximately 25km northwest of the Telfer gold mine, is considered prospective for intrusion-related, Telfer-style gold and copper mineralisation with similar host stratigraphy and the presence of domal structures on the tenement, and identified gold-copper mineralisation on adjacent tenure. Anomalous gold lag samples in outcrop on Carawine’s tenement have been reported by previous explorers.
Fortescue has completed interpretations of surface and drilling data to assist with target generation, heritage and other access planning activities, and geological and logistical reconnaissance trips to the JV tenure. In 2021 Fortescue completed an airborne electromagnetic survey over the Coolbro JV tenements, using the VTEM™ Max (Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic, "VTEM") helicopter-borne electromagnetic system. Fortescue have completed drilling programs at Eider (refer ASX announcement 28 April 2023) and Trotman South (refer ASX announcement 30 October 2024).
This page was last updated on 30 October 2024.
Please note: these pages include information that relates to Exploration Results prepared and first disclosed under the JORC Code (2012). The information was extracted from the Company’s previous ASX Announcements which can be viewed in the Investor Information & News section of this website by clicking here.
