Litchfield Minerals maps 8% copper targets in Northern Territory
- Bill McConnell
- Sep 1
- 3 min read
Litchfield Minerals (ASX: LMS) has injected fresh momentum into its multi-commodity Oonagalabi campaign in the Northern Territory by confirming gossanous copper directly above a high-priority VTEM conductor and mapping new surface cues, which suggest the system is bigger than previously thought.
The latest ground-truthing over VTEM Target 1 returned handheld XRF readings as high as 8 per cent copper from in-situ gossan positioned over the centre of the conductor, with field crews also logging classic Oonagalabi Formation lithologies along strike. Access has now been de-risked, with machinery due on site in the next couple of weeks to prepare pads ahead of a multi-target reverse circulation drilling program.
Field teams have also sharpened two other fronts. At VTEM Target 2, mapping picked up a distinctive plant indicator that Litchfield has only observed in association with copper-zinc mineralisation at Oonagalabi, pointing to a deeper blind sulphide source.
At the Bomb Diggity conductor cluster, new outcrops of the mineralised Oonagalabi Formation extend the corridor by about a kilometre, with stronger alteration than the previously drilled main outcrop. The company believes this provides evidence that it may be approaching the core of the system.
And while the XRF numbers are indicative only, the company is awaiting laboratory assays, which it hopes will shortly firm up these results.
Ground-truthing and final VTEM data materially lift our conviction in Oonagalabi as a potentially large, significant mineralised system… The only way to prove this is to drill and that’s exactly what we’re preparing to do.
Litchfield Minerals Managing Director Matthew Pustahya
Pustahya said shareholder support for the company’s current share purchase plan would allow it to methodically test more of its high-priority targets.
Those targets emerged from a recent VTEM campaign conducted in the past couple of weeks that defined five conductor clusters and flagged 14 priority-one anomalies with responses consistent with sulphides. Several aligned with the same stratigraphic horizon that hosts known copper-zinc mineralisation.
Drill pads and tracks are slated for the next week or so, with drilling to begin at Bomb Diggity structural corridor, before drilling stepping into potential gold-rich zones and selected conductors, subject to clearances.
Recent work has already broadened Litchfield’s geological canvas. Phase one reverse circulation drilling in the June quarter returned broad copper and zinc intercepts within the Oonagalabi Formation and a new magnetite-hosted gold-bismuth-style, with a 15-metre intercept grading 0.45 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 0.17 per cent bismuth, 0.35 per cent copper and 0.12 per cent zinc from 50m. This was interpreted as a separate metallogenic event.
Bomb Diggity has been floated as a potential heat and metal source for the mineralisation and Litchfield plans to drill a deep diamond hole later this field season.
On the balance sheet side, Litchfield banked a $500,000 placement at 10 cents a share mid-last month and launched a share purchase plan targeting up to $1 million on the same terms, with insider participation signalling confidence ahead of the drilling push.
Earlier in June, the Northern Territory Government also backed the program through three geophysics and drilling collaboration grants worth about $256,000, to co-fund the Oonagalabi VTEM survey, a Bomb Diggity diamond test and an airborne magnetic program at Lucy Creek.
Meanwhile, the company is cultivating optionality alongside copper‑zinc. Initial creek‑bed sampling west of Oonagalabi produced up to 44.9 per cent heavy minerals and subsequent QEMSCAN work – or electron microscopy - alongside XRD work confirmed a garnet and pyroxene‑dominant suite with favourable liberation characteristics. This spurred Litchfield to search for processing and offtake partners.
Regionally, at the Lucy Creek 2 prospect in the Georgina Basin, portable XRF rock chips highlighted high‑grade manganese with elevated zinc, lead and silver signatures, prompting geophysical surveys to refine targets.
With groundworks imminent and drilling programs queued behind them, Litchfield is moving into an important quarter. The company now has a larger target map, multiple conductors aligned with the mineralised horizon and the backing to test them - a combination that could prove decisive if the sulphide source sits where the data suggests it should.
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