DDH1 Drilling has been selected by Auroch Minerals to carry out the maiden drilling programmes at the Arden and Bonaventura base and precious metal projects in South Australia.

The programmes will comprise up to 5,000m of drilling targeting high-grade base metals and/or gold mineralisation across seven high-priority target areas. Drilling is set to kick off this month.

Auroch CEO Aidan Platel said: “The company continues to build momentum following the results from its recent IP survey, and we are excited to be partnering with DDH1 Drilling for our maiden drilling programmes.”

Platel said the company has seven high-priority targets with potential for high-grade mineralisation. Three of these are at Arden with the remainder at Bonaventura (pictured).

While the drilling will be a mix of reverse circulation and diamond holes, Auroch expects the latter to be used when more structural data is required from the holes, when a smaller drilling footprint is necessary, or where significant groundwater proves problematic for RC drilling.

Arden, located about 3.5 hours’ drive north of Adelaide, hosts 720km² of unexplored sedimentary exhalative mineralisation, according to Auroch. Results from initial exploration at the Ragless Range, Kanyaka and Radford Creek targets have unearthed promising prospects for large scale copper and zinc deposits.

Bonaventura sits in the northern part of Kangaroo Island and covers highly prospective geology and historic mines along 30 km of strike of the regional-scale Cygnet-Snelling Fault. Bonaventura has several high-grade zinc and gold targets that are drill ready, Auroch said.