Walparuta Copper Gold Project, SA
The Walparuta Copper-Gold Project is 100% owned and comprises three contiguous exploration licences covering approximately 220km² in the southern Curnamona Province of South Australia, a well-established polymetallic province that hosts several significant copper-gold deposits, including Havilah Resources’ Kalkaroo and Mutaroo deposits located approximately 50–80km from Walparuta.
The project area is underlain by Palaeoproterozoic Willyama Supergroup rocks, overlain by younger sediments and intruded by granitoids and pegmatites, providing a favourable geological setting for IOCG-style copper-gold mineralisation, as well as potential for shear-hosted gold, stratabound sulphides and rare earth element mineralisation. Historic mining at Walparuta and Weekaroo produced copper ore from magnetite-rich breccia systems, confirming the presence of a mineralised hydrothermal system within the project area.
Metals documented include copper, gold, silver, cobalt, barium, rare earth elements (REEs) and uranium. Ore minerals include chalcopyrite, pyrite, minor galena, cobaltite, bornite, uraninite, monazite, REE minerals, magnetite and hematite. The deposits are interpreted as part of the IOCG mineral system, characterised by Fe-oxide–rich, structurally focused mineralisation with albitic and potassic alteration and a Cu–Au–Fe–Co-REE-U–Ba metal signature.
Historic exploration has been limited, with only nine drill holes completed to a maximum depth of approximately 230 m. Drilling returned copper and gold mineralisation associated with magnetite-rich breccias and alteration systems.
Historic drilling confirms stratabound magnetite‑rich breccias host copper-gold at Walparuta, with better intersections including:
• 38.1 m @ 0.26 % Cu and 0.31 g/t Au from 15.2 m (Including 10.7 m @ 0.41 % Cu and 0.46 g/t Au from 16.8 m),
• 21.3 m @ 0.19 % Cu and 0.11 g/t Au from 18.3 m,
• 36.6 m @ 0.37 % Cu and 0.27 g/t Au from 39.6 m (Including 9.1 m @ 0.80 % Cu and 0.53 g/t Au from 57.9 m and 3.1 m @ 0.44 % Cu and 0.25 g/t Au from 71.6 m),
• 15.2 m @ 0.19 % Cu and 0.27 g/t Au from 112.8 m, (Including 3.1 m @ 0.44 % Cu and 0.42 g/t Au from 120.4 m),
• 10.7 m @ 0.26 % Cu and 0.10 g/t Au from 152.4 m (Including 3.1 m @ 0.45 % Cu and 0.09 g/t Au from 157.0 m).
Recent exploration has integrated high-resolution magnetic and gravity data, geological interpretation and 3D inversion modelling to define multiple large-scale IOCG-style targets. This work identified a significant coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly commencing from approximately 70 m below surface, interpreted to represent dense magnetite-rich alteration and brecciation typical of IOCG systems. Importantly, the core of this anomaly remains untested by historic drilling.
The magnetic target have been tested by IP lines that map well defined strong, clear and discrete chargeability anomalies on all sections that correspond to the known copper mineralised breccia and the magnetic and gravity targets down dip. The resistivity and conductivity data confirm that the chargeability anomalies relate to the presence of sulphide mineralisation and are typical of the IP results from known IOCG mineral systems in the Cloncurry District near Mt Isa and at Havilah Resources Kalkaroo project. There are also anomalous copper soil samples over some of the chargeability anomalies further confirming the sulphides being mapped may contain copper and gold.
Tarrina continues to advance Walparuta through systematic geological studies, geophysics and exploration targeting programs designed to refine drill targets and assess the potential for a large-scale copper-gold system within this underexplored region of the Curnamona Province.
