Duke Exploration’s drilling increases Mt Flora project’s potential

Special Report: ASX newcomer Duke Exploration has doubled the length of known copper mineralisation for its Mt Flora prospect in down dip drilling at its main Queensland project.

Weeks after arriving on the ASX through its oversubscribed $8m IPO, Duke Exploration (ASX:DEX) has announced some early stage drilling hits for Mt Flora, a historic copper mine within its flagship Bundarra tenement in Queensland.

All five drill holes in a first phase drilling program at Mt Flora have intersected copper mineralisation in stacked mineralised zones from surface to down dip at 230m.

At the Bundarra project’s Quarry anomaly, nine drill holes all intersected visible chalcopyrite copper mineralisation over a strike of 200m.

“It is very pleasing to see the preliminary logging results from the first line of drilling at Mt Flora confirm our initial interpretations of the geology and scale of mineralisation,” said chairman, Toko Kapea.

The Mt Flora prospect had a strike length of 1.2 km before the drilling program started.

Advanced technology and geophysical techniques used to target exploration

The drilling hits are testimony to Duke Exploration’s cutting-edge approach in using advanced technology and geophysical techniques to improve the probability of resource discovery.

Spatial predictive modelling and 3D geological mapping are among the advanced techniques used by the company.

Duke Exploration had identified five high priority areas in Bundarra as ready for drilling along this strike length as defined by advanced geological technology to a depth of 250m.

The Bundarra tenement in Queensland was Australia’s highest-grade copper project in the 1800s, and its copper mineralisation is classed as a lode-style porphyry mineral system.

Copper mineralisation intersected beneath historic Bundarra veins

Drilling has also intersected copper mineralisation in the Bundarra granodiorite beneath the mapped historic massive sulphide copper veins at the Bundarra copper project.

“Copper is being found in the granodiorite beneath the known copper mineralisation at Mt Flora, which not only suggests the Mt Flora mineral system could be much larger, but it also opens up new areas for exploration in the Bundarra pluton,” said Kapea.

“This can only increase our chances of making new discoveries in the near future,” he said.

Nine new copper lodes have been logged by the company that are between historic lodes.

They have a total width of 225m from the hanging wall vein to the footwell vein.

“The copper lodes are predictable down dip, which is always important for resource estimation and mining,” said Kapea.

The company has drilled 15 drill holes for 2,309m out of 43 holes and 7,040m in its program.

Two thousand drilling samples have been sent for analysis, and assay results for these are expected in mid-December.

Next steps for Duke Exploration include infill drilling

The next steps for Duke Exploration are to complete its phase one drilling program at Mt Flora, and to move on to infill drilling at the prospect guided by the initial drilling results.

The explorer also wants to complete soil and geophysics surveys at its Quorn prospect.

The company has plans to finalise land access and drill planning for its Prairie Creek gold target also in Queensland.

This article was developed in collaboration with Duke Exploration, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.