Norfolk Metals sets sights on drilling copper rich samples and uranium targets

Norfolk Metals (ASX: NFL) is passing key milestones for both its Orroroo Uranium Project in South Australia and Roger River Gold Project in Tasmania, ahead of key drilling programs for both prospects.

“We remain excited to progress both of our projects with additional geophysical and/or geochemistry work prior to subsequent drilling,” commented Executive Chairman Ben Phillips.

Orroroo: Prospective Australian uranium

Historical drilling at the Orroroo acreage validated several targets with elevated gamma readings within a 5km by 3km area.

In February, a downhole geophysical survey confirmed uranium occurrences across three targets over 5km apart.

As a result, Phillips believes the “Orroroo program is not expected to be technically challenging as we progress after our down hole survey successfully defined uranium in all historical wells tested.” 

“The program should be considered as more of a procedural process ensuring all stakeholders are considered and skilled contracts are utilised to conduct geophysics and subsequently drill preparations,” he added. 

On Tuesday, the company elected Atlas Geophysics to conduct a gravity survey on a 250m x 250m offset grid totaling 2,253 planned survey points, which will progress towards a maiden drill program.

Roger River: Add copper to the mix

Roger River has returned three successful copper drill targets this year, revealing native copper in cores drilled to depths of 363m.

Copper is commonly extracted from various minerals rather than being found in its native state, which is rare but highly sought after by small-cap exploration companies.

Geochemical analysis on the drill targets found that the larger the mass analysed, the better the copper composition. However, Norfolk flagged that “sieving every sample would be laborious and costly.” 

Moving forward, the company plans to continue maiden exploration at Roger River and to send selected samples for copper screening analysis.

Trading close to cash

Norfolk Metals listed in March last year, raising $5.5 million at 20 cents per share. Positive copper lab results helped the stock rally to highs of 30.5 cents last November.

The stock has eased to 13 cents or a market cap of $3.9 million – Which sits just above its last reported cash position of $3.73 million at the end of 31 December 2022.