Firetail Resources (ASX: FTL) has reported strong initial drilling results at its Skyline copper project in Newfoundland, Canada.

Firetail announced earlier this week that it had acquired four adjoining mineral claims at Skyline, increasing the project’s strike horizon from 16km to 25km.

That confidence in the area’s potential has now been verified with the company’s first drill hole at the project intercepting massive, semi-massive and disseminated sulphides.

Growth potential

Chief executive officer Glenn Poole said the drill intercepts, both of which remain open up-dip and down-dip, further realise the potential Firetail sees at the project.

“These intercepts provide the team confidence for future potential growth along this trend, with previous drilling primarily targeting the shallow sulphide lodes,” Mr Poole said.

“It is not uncommon for volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) systems to be blind from the surface and, with no drilling up-dip of the shallower massive sulphide intercept, we are confident we will add further shallow results to the mineralised inventory.”

Maiden program

The initial hole is the start of a 5,000-metre maiden diamond drilling program aimed at expanding upon the previous work completed across the project.

It is testing the extensional potential of mineralisation up-dip, down-dip and along strike of existing drill-defined mineralisation.

Firetail recently flew a high-resolution airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey across the initial project area, which comprises 16km of prospective geological strike.

Blind EM targets defined from that program will now be ranked and, if warranted, drill tested.

Expanded land holdings

The newly acquired claim groups have increased Firetail’s total land holding in the Skyline area from 47sq km to 110sq km.

This new holding hosts the same lithological horizons that contain the York Harbour VMS mine, adjacent drill targets and other mapped copper occurrences in the area.

Two targets have already been identified from historic reports, supported by historical mapping and regional geophysics, including around 600m of sulphide seep in pillow basalts in rock exposures.