Copper’s strength draws Scorpion Minerals’ attention to Mt Mulcahy

Scorpion Minerals demonstrating copper potential of the Mt Mulcahy prospect
Mt Mulcahy has proven copper prospectivity with plenty of mineralised hits and existing resource at South Limb Pod
Mt Mulcahy includes multiple untested VTEM conductors located within the 13.5km VMS horizon corridor

Special Report: With copper sentiment on the rise, Scorpion Minerals is turning its attention towards following up on high-grade copper confirmed in historical exploration at its Mt Mulcahy prospect in WA’s Murchison region.

The red metal has put on significant weight in the year to date, with copper currently commanding prices of about US$10,000/t on the spot market.

ANZ’s commodity team believes that while copper prices will remain volatile in the short term due to the “challenging economic backdrop”, they remain well supported due to the “huge under supply of the copper required to feed the emerging energy transition”.

This strength seems to be behind BHP’s (ASX:BHP) rejected $60bn bid for Anglo American and it is certainly why Scorpion Minerals (ASX:SCN) is keen to get to exploring at Mt Mulcahy, part of the 1295km2 Pharos project about 60km from Cue.

Mt Mulcahy lies in a similar geological setting to the world-class Golden Grove VMS deposit held by 29 Metals (ASX:29M) and hosts a highly prospective copper-rich VMS horizon over 13.5km long that is open along strike.

A total of 85 historical holes totalling 10,304m have been completed over the South Limb Pod and West Copper zones of mineralisation with diamond drilling at South Limb Pod returning high-grade results such as:

6.8m at 4.9% copper, 3.7% zinc, 0.16% cobalt, 39g/t silver and 0.19g/t gold from 112.2m;
10.2m at 4.5% copper, 4.0% zinc, 0.17% cobalt, 33g/t silver and 0.18g/t gold from 127m;
12.4m at 3.1% copper, 2.3% zinc, 0.10% cobalt, 28g/t silver and 0.21g/t gold from 77.8m; and
11.3m at 4.9% copper, 4.2% zinc, 0.16% cobalt, 44g/t silver and 0.57g/t gold from 37.4m.

Unsurprisingly, the South Limb Pod zone of mineralisation already hosts a measured, indicated and inferred resource of 647,000t grading 2.4% copper, 1.8% zinc, 0.1% cobalt and 20g/t silver.

Over at West Copper, two holes drilled to test historical surface workings returned a top intersection of 3.1m at 1.9% copper, 0.96% zinc, 15g/t silver and 0.16g/t gold from 44.9m.

Scorpion ASX SCN — Pharos project showing the Mt Mulcahy copper prospect. Pic: Scorpion Minerals

Plenty of targets

SCN noted that there are multiple untested VTEM conductors located within the 13.5km VMS horizon corridor at Mt Mulcahy.

It has started a strategic review of options to progress the prospect.

“Amidst the backdrop of a strengthening copper market, Scorpion is pleased to report that it will be advancing exploration activity at its Mt Mulcahy prospect in WA,” chief executive officer Michael Fotios said.

“Mt Mulcahy is a truly exciting opportunity for Scorpion, as it hosts a significant copper-zinc-silver-gold-cobalt resource in VMS stratigraphy similar to the world-class Golden Grove asset held by 29 Metals.

“Importantly, Mt Mulcahy has an existing resource within the South Limb Pod zone of 647,000 tonnes at 2.4% copper, 1.8% zinc, 0.1% cobalt and 20g/t silver, providing a very solid foundation to build upon as exploration increases.

“Historic exploration at Mt Mulcahy has revealed several high-grade targets along a 13.5km copper rich Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) horizon and these will form the basis for our next phase of exploration.”

Future work

Over the coming months, SCN plans to undertake downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveying of existing prepared diamond hole at the base of South Limb Pod.

This will be followed by ground EM surveys guided by the DHEM results, geological mapping and rock chip sampling.

Additionally, the company will carry out auger soil geochemistry aimed at identifying additional copper targets under shallow soil cover before it carries out diamond and/or reverse circulation drilling of existing targets at depth.

This article was developed in collaboration with Scorpion Minerals, 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.