WIM was granted the right to explore Stavely Block 10 on the 23rd September 2019 for a period of five years (Exploration Licence 6873), prospective for copper, gold, and other base metals.
Drilling for samples
The project area is located within the central part of the Stavely Arc, which extends from Mortlake to Lake Hindmarsh in Western Victoria. Stavely Block 10 (dark blue overlay in the map below) covers an area of 757km2 located directly south of Horsham, from Drung to Glenisla between the Grampians and the Black Range. It is mostly covered by broad acre farming for sheep and cereal crops.
Source: base map courtesy the Victorian Government
The Stavely Arc developed during west-directed subduction along the eastern margin of Gondwana in the Cambrian (500-525 million years ago). Such a setting is favourable for a range of arc-related mineral systems (e.g. porphyry, epithermal and volcanic-hosted massive sulphide systems). The Stavely Arc is now preserved as eighteen structurally-dismembered, narrow, fault-bound, volcanic belt segments that contain features characteristic of metallogenically well-endowed volcanic arc terranes worldwide.
The Stavely Block 10 Project area is concealed under younger Murray Basin cover sediments and therefore interpreted to exist from geophysics (magnetics data) and previous exploration drilling. WIM commenced exploration over the project area after holding several information sessions with the public in 2019 and 2021. An air core drilling program was carried out in February-March 2021 aimed at drilling through the regional cover sediments to tap the underlying Cambrian rocks and provide a window to the underlying geology.
WIM commissioned an airborne magnetics survey over parts of the licence area (see magenta overlay below), which was conducted during May and June 2021. Flying was at a very low height of 40m above the ground with line spacings of 50m east-west which has produced very detailed imagery of the underlying geology. Magnetic variations within different rock types are used to help map the underlying geology beneath the earth's surface, and the results from this survey will help direct further exploration.
During January 2022 WIM is conducting ground level gravity surveys. This survey technique takes measurements of the gravitational field at a series of different locations over areas of interest within the tenement and help define the underlying geology using variations in rock density.
WIM engaged Horsham-based Khumsup Geophysics to conduct their gravity survey
The field survey work will be accompanied by discussions with stakeholders and exploration reconnaissance drilling will occur in February and March this year.
If you would like to know more about the gravity survey or planned non-invasive drilling, please contact David Jelley, Stavely Block 10 Project Manager, on 0408 731 338.
WIM's Stavely Block 10 Project Manager and Land Officer will engage directly with any affected landholders, should works need to be undertaken on or near their properties. Exploration will be low impact, particularly for geophysical surveys which typically do not lead to ground disturbance. The team will also engage with local councils, Wimmera Development Association, and other community groups.
A free call community information hotline is available: 1800 959 298.
PROJECT INFORMATION SESSIONS
WIM held a series of information sessions at local community halls in late November 2021. A leaflet inviting landholders to the sessions was distributed into mailboxes within the project area and published within the local newspapers. The information sessions were held at the following community halls:
