by Ross Louthean at Diggers and Dealers in Kalgoorlie

The explorer with one of the most advanced projects near Mount Isa has pointed out that the region has not had a major find for 31 years.

In his presentation on day one of the Diggers & Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie Rob Watkins, managing director of Carnaby Resources, said the last major regional mine discovery was Ernest Henry in 1991 and the Cannington silver-rich project the previous year.

The Mount Isa copper mines were discovered in the 1920s.

Watkins told delegates the Greater Duchess project was in a world class copper district complete with infrastructure and the railway passes between the company’s Nil Desperandum and Lady Fanny discoveries.

Carnaby now has at Nil Depserandum a proven 41 million tonnes at 4.1 percent copper and 0.4 grams/tonne gold and three kilometres away has the evolving Lady Fanny find.

Carnaby has acquired the Mount Hope lease, ten kilometres north of Lady Fanny which has a ten kilometre-long ‘historically overlooked and sparsely explored IOCG (iron oxide copper-gold) corridor’.

Mr Watkins said IP geophysics has proven itself to be a game changer in the Nil Desperandum corridor. New detailed aeromagnetics reveals mineralisation following a strong structural pathway, which has generated several new targets.

He said at Lady Fanny, Carnaby had outlined 300 metres of high-grade core of copper-gold mineralisation at surface, and recent hits included 68m @ 2.4 percent Cu and 0.4 g/t Au from 40m, and 32m @ 2.6 percent Cu and 0.6 g/t Au from 69m depth.