The Ararat Project is located approximately 200 km west of Melbourne in western Victoria and to the west and south of the regional town of Ararat, Victoria.  The Project comprises a retention licence, RL2020, which was recently granted replacing two exploration licences - EL3019 and EL4758. 

The Ararat Project hosts Besshi-style VMS copper-gold-zinc mineralisation at Mt Ararat with a Total Mineral Resource of 1.3 Mt at 2.0% copper, 0.5 g/t gold and 0.4% zinc and 6 g/t silver including 0.25Mt at 2.2% copper in Indicated Mineral Resources with the remainder of the Total Mineral Resource classified as Inferred Resources.

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To the north of the existing Mineral Resource, soil sampling has defined a large zinc-copper geochemical anomaly that is 1.5km in strike (open to the north) with rock-chips of sub-cropping gossan returning 10.8% copper, 1.5 g/t gold and 0.4% zinc at the Carroll’s prospect.

The Ararat Goldfield has significant historic alluvial and deep lead production of circa 640,000 ounces of gold but with no known hard-rock source.

The Company is targeting extensions pf the Mount Ararat VMS deposit, Stawell-style gold mineralisation and intrusive related gold mineralisation. 

REGIONAL GEOLOGY

The Ararat Project is located in part of the western margin of the Stawell-Bendigo Zone, which is part of the western Lachlan Fold Belt. The Lachlan Fold Belt is comprised of Cambrian age mafic volcanic and pelitic sedimentary units of the Moornambool Metamorphics which were metamorphosed to greenschist to amphibolite facies during the Silurian period. The Moornambool Metamorphic Complex is bounded on the east by the west dipping Coongee Fault and to the west by the Moyston Fault. The Moornambool Metamorphic Complex is predominantly comprised of mafic and quartzo-pelitic schists (eg. Carrolls Amphibolite and Lexington Schist) and their less intensely metamorphosed protoliths are occasionally preserved (eg. Magdala Metabasalt).

observation that, rather than a single copper trend along the contact between the Carrolls Amphibolite and the Lexington Schist, there is a ‘VMS copper corridor’ which may extend up to 1km in width. This corridor is interpreted to continue for approximately 15 kilometres within the Ararat Project tenements and presents regional reconnaissance exploration opportunities for Stavely Minerals.

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At the Mount Ararat copper deposit, copper-gold-zinc mineralisation is hosted in the Lexington Schist with inter-fingers and structural slivers of the Carrolls Amphibolite in a structurally overturned stratigraphy steeply dipping approximately 70 degrees to the west.

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Ararat VMS Deposit 

The Mount Ararat copper deposit lies within a small portion of a much more extensive prospective exhalative horizon on the contact between the Carrolls Amphibolite and the Lexington Schist. The identification of multiple gossan horizons and historical copper workings in the field have led to the observation that, rather than a single copper trend along the contact between the Carrolls Amphibolite and the Lexington Schist, there is a ‘VMS copper corridor’ which may extend up to 1km in width. This corridor is interpreted to continue for approximately 15 kilometres within the Ararat Project tenements and presents regional reconnaissance exploration opportunities for Stavely Minerals.

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The Besshi-style VMS copper-gold-zinc-silver mineralisation has been identified over a 350 metre strike extent (open at depth) at Mount Ararat. In 2014, 7 RC holes were drilled into the northern extensions of the known copper-gold-zinc mineralisation at the Mount Ararat VMS to test for mineralised extensions as indicated by ground EM conductors. 

All the holes intercepted significant copper - gold - zinc - silver mineralisation including:

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• 5m at 2.10% copper, 0.56 g/t gold, 0.48% zinc and 9 g/t silver, including

       o   2m at 3.37% copper, 0.73 g/t gold, 0.47% zinc and 14 g/t silver

• 3m at 2.64% copper, 0.17 g/t gold, 0.31% zinc and 3 g/t silver

• 1m at 5.89% copper, 0.55 g/t gold, 2.31% zinc and 17 g/t silver