It’s been a bittersweet week for the family of Australian Test cricketer Marnus Labuschagne.

His recall into the Test side reaped some personal rewards – namely, a promising knock of 38 before a regrettable dismissal.

But he had no joy with the ball, and his return to the national side coincided with its first series loss to India on Australian soil.

There is talk, however, that Labuschagne did enough to earn consideration for the mid-year Ashes tour of England and chase his maiden Test ton.

Meanwhile, Marnus’ dad Andre wants to build on his 750,000 tonnes near Coolabah in western NSW.

Andre is the executive chairman of Aeris Resources, which was today granted a new exploration tenement (EL8810). It runs right up against the north‐west corner of the current Tritton tenement package, where 750,000 tonnes of copper has been discovered so far along in a 50km long corridor.

Aeris snagged the new tenement because it believes this copper corridor continues for another 40km to the north.

Exploration in EL8810 will kick off this year sometime, initially focussed on compiling historic data and geological mapping.

The crowd is focussed on Aeris’ opening partnership at Torrens

While all that has been welcomed by the market, the real excitement in the months ahead will come from the Torrens exploration program in South Australia.

A joint venture between Aeris and Argonaut Resources (ASX:ARE) has been working for years towards a huge drilling campaign at Torrens – which happens to be just 40km from BHP’s recent copper discovery at Oak Dam West. A drilling program is due to kick off in a matter of weeks.

The Aeris share price — currently at 20c — has ranged between 8.8c and 28.5c over the past 12 months.

See what we did there?

Marnus, 24, was born in Klerksdorp, South Africa. His parents are both South African and emigrated to Australia in 2004, where Andre had gained work in the mining industry.

Andre has worked mainly in the gold industry in a career spanning more than 25 years, and before settling in at Aeris, was Director of ASX-listed gold company Norton Gold Fields Limited, up to its sale to a major Chinese gold company in 2012.