The Coogee project lies within the St Ives goldfield on the northern extremity of Lake Lefroy, just 20km north-east of the renowned Kambalda nickel mining centre and 55km south of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Eastern Goldfields.
The prospectivity of the immediate locality is evidenced by a plethora of current and historical gold and nickel-mineralised centres and occurrences in the fertile Norseman-Kalgoorlie segment at the southern end of the almost 560km-long Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt. Nearby operations within a radius of about 30km include the significant St Ives gold camp and the Salt Creek, Daisy-Milano and Lucky Bay gold deposits.
Last month, Javelin revealed the outcome of its independent review of the historic drilling data from the Coogee gold-copper project. The study was undertaken by consultant Alf Gilman of Odessa Resources.
Based on current record high Australian gold prices, the review resulted in a significant increase in the JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for the Coogee project to 3.65 million tonnes at 1.08 grams per tonne gold for 126,685 ounces and 1.01 million tonnes at 0.41 per cent copper containing 4133 tonnes of copper metal.
The review also showed that gold mineralisation extends along strike for 1.2km at an average width of 350m and to more than 225m vertically.
When the updated Coogee gold resource was revealed, Javelin said it viewed the outcome as a strong result that would provide a solid platform for it to build a substantial gold inventory on the doorstep of the renowned St Ives goldfield.
Additionally, it said that despite the well-established mineralised system and its desirable geological address, the Coogee deposit and surrounding areas had been subject to almost no modern exploration techniques until the application of its recent geophysics.
Javelin is now looking at drilling to extend known mineralisation along strike and below the Coogee pit. It is also planning to test the possibility of gold-copper resource extensions and additions along the string of its identified magnetic targets to the north-east and to the west of the Coogee mining lease – and potentially into the adjacent exploration license.
Management says it is in discussions with a leading Kalgoorlie-based drilling contractor in relation to a drill-for-equity arrangement that would assist it with meeting the early costs of exploration.
The company has engaged OmniGeoX, led by geologist Peter Langworthy, as an independent technical consultant to review all of its existing project drilling and geophysical data and to plan the first-phase exploration drilling program on the priority Coogee targets.
Javelin is also looking at potential avenues for early cash flow from direct ore sales or toll-treating options at nearby processing plants.
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