Murdie

The Murdie Project comprises two highly prospective exploration licences, EL5937 and EL5945 that are 100% held and operated by Argonaut Resources via its subsidiary, Kelaray Pty Ltd. The exploration target is Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) systems in the highly prospective Stuart Shelf region of South Australia.

The exploration licences cover an area of 1,015 square kilometres that are contiguous with the company’s Torrens Joint Venture Project and located within 10 kilometres of OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena deposit (Figure 1) and 45 kilometres of BHP’s recent Oak Dam West discovery, along the western margin of Lake Torrens.

The Murdie Project encompasses a confirmed magnetite-bearing IOCG system known as Murdie identified by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) plus a series of non-magnetic, gravity only targets that straddle the shoreline known as West Lake Torrens. Recent geophysical modelling has defined new drilling targets that warrant testing.

The West Lake Torrens anomaly is a regional gravity anomaly (Figure 2). This type of anomaly is typically displayed as a "bouguer" gravity anomaly. The peak of the West Lake Torrens bouguer anomaly is 7 milligals above background levels.

The first hole of the 2021 drilling program, WLTD001 (Smith Dam 1) intercepted an IOCG alteration system which confirms the prospectivity of the West Lake Torrens gravity anomaly. The second hole WLTD002 (Smith Dam 2) (Photo 1) intercepted further IOCG alteration including breccia zones with moderate to strong hematite and potassic alteration. Access to WLTD003 (Trimmer anomaly) was restricted due to lake access surface and subsurface conditions and subsequently drilling has temporarily been suspended and a review of access methodologies is underway.

Figure 1. Murdie project, gravity targets and exploration domains

Figure 2. West Lake Torrens anomaly, bouguer gravity (left) and residual gravity (right) with drill targets

Photo 1. Drilling at WLTD002, Murdie project (Photo courtesy of SA Dept for Energy and Mines)