• Miramar Resources finds anomaly at Joy Helen similar to known SEDEX deposits
• SEDEX lead-zinc-silver deposits comprise many of the world’s largest base metals plays
• Company planning more soil, rock chip sampling and maiden drilling at Joy Helen

Special Report: Miramar Resources says soil sampling at the Chain Pool project in WA has outlined a 700m-long anomaly at the Joy Helen prospect – similar to known SEDEX lead-zinc-silver deposits including the high-grade Lady Loretta deposit in QLD.

Sedimentary Exhalative (SEDEX) base metal deposits constitute many of the world’s great ore deposits, like the Mount Isa Mines copper and zinc mine and Glencore’s HYC zinc mine in Australia.

Notably, around 85% of these base metal deposits, including all giant deposits (>10Mt of metal), occur within 200 kilometres of the transition between thick and thin lithosphere (otherwise known as the earths’ crust).

It looks like Chain Pool could fit the bill, sitting around 180km from the 170km Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary contour and displaying many of the key ingredients for the formation of a significant SEDEX deposit.

Plus, data from this soil survey was compared with published data from Lady Loretta, which intersected 7.6 m of 21.2% lead beneath a lead-zinc-silver soil anomaly.

At Chain Pool the SEDEX Metal Index anomaly threshold and SEDEX Alteration Index suggest that the high-grade Joy Helen copper-lead-silver-zinc mineralisation at the project may continue to the northeast under cover where it has not yet been tested with drilling.

Zeroing in on Joy Helen’s potential

The Chain Pool project, 275km northeast of Carnarvon, straddles the boundary between WA’s Gascoyne province and the Edmund Basin.

The western half of the tenement covers a granitoid intrusion of the Durlacher Supersuite, which is the same unit that hosts the Yangibana and Yin rare earths deposits, while the eastern covers sediments of the Edmund Basin intruded by 1465Ma dolerite sills.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) executive chairman Allan Kelly said the project was also located close to a major global-scale geological feature which is also known to host all large SEDEX base metal deposits in Australia.

“We originally pegged the Chain Pool project due to the presence of mapped Durlacher Supersuite granite, which is the same unit that hosts the Yangibana and YIN rare earth deposits, but we quickly realised the potential for other deposit types,” he said.

Joy Helen is on the eastern half of Chain Pool and had previously been identified over 700m of strike, but now it could extend even further.

“Our initial rock chip sampling confirmed the historic high-grade mineralisation at Joy Helen and now, the results of our recent soil sampling have almost doubled the potential strike length of the prospect,” Kelly said.

“Significantly, recent data collected at Chain Pool compares favourably with published data from known SEDEX deposits.

“We look forward to systematically progressing the opportunity at Chain Pool.”

The plan is to conduct infill soil and rock chip sampling along the Joy Helen trend, sort out permitting for maiden aircore drilling at Joy Helen along with further rock chip sampling of the Mundine Well dolerite dykes.

This article was developed in collaboration with Miramar Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.