Lucapa Diamond Company Limited advise that it has commenced the first extensive airborne survey program undertaken for 25 years at its 100% owned Merlin Diamond Project in the Northern Territory. The Company believes there is strong potential to create significant shareholder value by unlocking the substantial exploration upside at Merlin. The program is aimed at growing the Merlin resources through the discovery of more diamondiferous kimberlites and potentially other minerals across the tenements.
Lucapa Managing Director Alex Kidman said “We believe our large landholding is highly prospective for more premium quality diamond deposits and may also host other minerals including base metals given its proximity to Glencore’s McArthur River zinc and lead mine and the same associated geological structures. This modern, more sensitive Xcite survey will enable us to identify potential targets on our tenements that previous surveys would have missed and we look forward to announcing the results of this survey in Q1 2025.”
A new generation helicopter-borne time-domain electromagnetic (HTDEM) survey is being flown over the 234 km² area, covering both the Merlin Mineral Lease and the surrounding Exploration Licence. Results of the survey are expected in Q1 2025. Lucapa believes that the use of the latest exploration technology at Merlin, would redefine existing kimberlite targets and identify new ones, particularly because most of the tenement area has not been explored using modern methods.
The airborne EM system which is being used is Xcite, developed and operated by New Resolution Geophysics. It is considerably more advanced than the previous airborne system applied at Merlin which was limited to a maximum investigation depth of approximately 100 metres.
The Company expects that it will be able to locate targets missed by previous operators within the Exploration License and Mineral Lease, as the Xcite’s TDEM allows for near continuous depth investigations from near surface to 500 metres below surface, with the highest resolution in the industry, as along line sampling is carried out every 50cm.
Merlin’s large JORC compliant diamond resource1 is open at depth with the majority of the pipes not drilled beyond 220 metres. The high population of diamondiferous kimberlites that have a history of producing high quality diamonds, including Australia’s largest diamond at 104 carats, indicate that there is potential for more discoveries, and these will potentially add to the resource and therefore could add more economic value when the mine is restarted.
Glencore’s McArthur River base metal mine, which is one of the world’s largest deposits of zinc and lead, has been operating for 30 years just 50 kilometres from Merlin and along structures that extend through the Merlin Exploration License area. The mine generates over 250k tonnes of zinc, 1.2 million ounces of silver and 50k tonnes of lead per annum.
The geology of the Merlin area is considered prospective for similar types of deposits and is highly suitable for electromagnetic (EM) surveys due to limited conductive cover in most areas of the tenements. The survey will also cover the large Leviathan magnetic target which has previously been investigated but not resolved. The Company is very excited to embark on this plan of action and believes it is the most efficient use of its cash resources in the short term. Lucapa will keep the market updated following the completion of the airborne survey work.
