CuFe will include the newly updated Orlando deposit resource into the Tennant Creek Alliance scoping study and independent standalone development options. Pic: Getty Images
Mining
Special Report: CuFe has kicked off the new year on a high note after doubling resources at the Orlando deposit within its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory to 579,000oz gold equivalent.
The update in the Orlando resource to 5.95Mt grading 1.16% copper and 1.5g/t gold, which increased copper tonnes by 88.6% and gold ounces by 120%, is due to the inclusion of a previously excluded portion of the resource along strike and at depth that was partially mined by historical underground operations.
It also takes the combined resource for CuFe’s (ASX:CUF) Tennant Creek resource up to 10.35Mt at 1.53% copper and 1.07g/t gold and will plug into the Tennant Creek Alliance scoping study that is currently underway as well as independent standalone development options.
The company had in late October 2024 formed an alliance with Emmerson Resources (ASX:ERM) and Tennant Minerals to collaborate on their copper, gold and critical metals development opportunities in the Tennant Creek region.
It includes the potential for the development of a single, multi-user facility to process copper, gold and critical metals from their respective resources and recent high-grade exploration discoveries in the region.
Orlando sits within mining lease ML29919 about 25km northwest of the Tennant Creek townsite. It was previously mined by both open cut and underground methods.
Previous underground operations produced 322,060t of ore yielding 121,282oz of gold and 4852t of copper.
“This resource update has added a significant volume of copper and gold metal value to the project at a very low cost,” executive director Mark Hancock said.
“By analysing and validating the full historical drill hole dataset we have created the opportunity to model the full global Orlando resource, whilst keeping confidence in the data set using the expertise of expert consultants in MEC.
“This new resource is invaluable to the development options we are currently studying both internally as a stand-alone project but also as part of the Tennant Creek Alliance with Emmerson Resources and Tennant Minerals and allows the most economic options to be determined for the full resource.
“The more stones we turn over the more our knowledge and confidence increases in the assets as it is becoming one of the more significant deposits in the Tennant Creek Mineral Field with over 10Mt of combined resource from the Orlando, Gecko/Goanna deposits.
“We look forward to continuing our studies including detailed mine planning (open pit and underground) and have commenced the same review process with MEC for the Gecko and Goanna resources so we look forward to seeing what upside exists there.”
CUF will use the new resource to run open pit optimisations to test changes to an Orlando open pit cut back and to test sensitivities to the cut over point to an underground operation
Technical consultant MEC has commenced an audit of the Gecko and Goanna Resources and will commence a global re-estimate of the deposits.
Additionally, several areas have been identified where the mineralisation is open and there is the opportunity for further mineralised extensions. These opportunities will be investigated in future near mine drilling campaigns.
This article was developed in collaboration with CuFe, 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.
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