Hardey makes its copper and gold projects a priority as prices continue to rise

Special report: Hardey Resources has outlined a significant exploration budget for its prospective copper and gold projects as the price of the commodities continue to head north.

A priority for the company (ASX:HDY) is its Burraga assets in New South Wales, which it will inject $500,000 to $1 million into over the next two quarters.

To that end, Hardey is fast tracking work on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Lloyd’s copper mine – part of the larger Burraga project.

Hardey is also planning to undertake drilling programs at the Hackneys Creek and Isabella gold prospects later this year and is working towards the completion of heritage surveys in June/July at the Grace gold project.

Completion of a heritage survey will allow the company to begin drilling at the Grace project.

The strategic move comes on the back of a review of the assets and the rising copper and gold prices.

In the past two years the copper price has gained over 60 per cent to trade at around $3.10 per pound. Gold prices, meanwhile, have climbed around 18 per cent in the past few years to over $1730 per ounce.

Copper part of the EV revolution

While copper is used in building and construction, it is also used in electric car batteries, solar panels and mobile phones.

Copper demand from the growing electric vehicle market is set to jump from 185,000 tonnes currently to around 1.1 million tonnes by 2025.

Within 10 years total copper consumption in all types of electric vehicles could account for 5 per cent of the global market.

There is also a supply deficit looming with existing mines at full capacity, declining grades and a shortage of new projects coming into production.

Mining license the main game

Gaining approval of the EIS at Lloyd’s remains a priority with the company ultimately aiming to obtain a mining licence for the Lloyd’s site to process the existing and as yet unmined material.

As part of Hardey’s renewed focus on the Burraga project, the company began a review of the tailing stockpiles and slag heaps at the Lloyds mine earlier this year.

The company’s goal is to identify a suitable strategy for commercialising the historic stockpiles.

Cutting edge tech

To do this Hardey is following in the footsteps of mining heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto and using cutting-edge technology like CSIRO’s HyLogger system and AuScope’s National Virtual Core Library to gain a better understanding of its deposits.

HyLogger can use existing drill core and chips to generate a model of mineral alteration across the ore body.

HyLogger data will be used in conjunction with the existing geographic information system and geochemical data to provide a holistic model of the Lloyd’s ore body and its alteration halo to direct future drilling programs.

This type of analysis is becoming common place in the minerals industry as it has proved to be one of the most accurate and cost-effective exploration tools for structurally complex ore bodies such as Lloyd’s.

This special report is brought to you by Hardey Resources.

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