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Drilling at QMines’ Mt Chalmers delivers more wide, high-grade copper-gold-silver
Mining
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With QMines’ own drill rig operating around the clock at its Mt Chalmers project in Queensland, the results are coming in thick and fast.
QMines’ (ASX:QML) has received the results of the first three reverse circulation (RC) drill holes which show Mt Chalmers still has plenty more shallow, thick and high-grade copper, gold and silver to reveal.
Top hits featured 8m at 4.7% copper equivalent from 119m, within a broader intercept of 21m at 2.6% copper equivalent from 113m.
Other significant intercepts were 29m at 1.6% copper equivalent, including 2m at 4.2% from 161m; 2m at 4% copper equivalent from 173m; 2m at 3.6% from 179m; and 16m at 1.1% copper equivalent from 132m, including 2m at 4.3% from 136m.
Drilling has ramped up at Mt Chalmers after QMines bought its own drill rig earlier this year and samples are now being delivered weekly to the ALS Laboratory.
“It is great to see the Mt Chalmers mine continue to deliver shallow, thick, and high-grade drilling results,” executive chairman Andrew Sparke said.
“Further step out drilling is continuing at Mt Chalmers where the deposit remains open in a number of directions.
“The RC rig and our drilling team are performing exceptionally well with significantly more meters being reported on more regular basis.”
The company is expecting to deliver ~3,000m of RC drilling per month over the coming months now the rig is fully operational.
The goal of the RC drilling program at Mt Chalmers is to upgrade the Inferred resources to the higher confidence Indicated and Measured levels as well as extend the resource in several areas.
QMines has so far completed 2,162m of drilling across 12 holes, with the results of the other nine holes due out shortly. This is the first stage of a planned 10,000m, 50-hole RC program.
Drilling to date has already identified wider mineralisation intercepts than expected and provided some evidence of stacked mineralised zones.
The current exploration program is anticipated to improve QMines’ understanding of the geological controls on mineralisation, while also aiming to identify additional mineralisation.
And the company has plenty more exploration on the cards, with ~30,000m of RC and diamond drilling ongoing and drilling set to begin at the Woods Shaft prospect – the first of three Exploration Targets (JORC 2012).
Preparations are also underway to drill Tracker 3, the first of four large copper and zinc soil anomalies.
Since QMines listed in early May last year, the company has already delivered two resource upgrades and a third is expected in CY 2022.
Copper breaking records
There’s no better time to be a copper explorer, with renowned investment bank Goldman Sachs last week tipping the red metal would smash through the $US100,000/t mark thanks to the clean energy revolution that is already in play.
According to the firm’s top metals strategist Nicholas Snowdon, there is no decarbonisation without copper and that’s because of a lack on new copper mines in the development pipeline.
“Impossibly large (supply) deficits will develop over the course of the next three, five and 10 years,” he said.
“By the middle of this decade, we’re forecasting the largest ever deficit in the copper market. So just two years away from now. And by the end of the decade, the largest ever long-term deficit.
“So we don’t rule out that copper, could be $US50,000/t, could be a $US100,000/t commodity.”
This article was developed in collaboration with QMines, 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.
