Kincora Copper gains further confirmation Trundle is a Northparkes lookalike

Kincora Copper’s Trundle Project in the prolific Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW bears striking similarities to the Northparkes mine – Australia’s second-largest porphyry mine that hosts a series of five economic intrusive systems to date and a potential skarn trucking distance development deposit.

Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) has received even more proof its brownfields Trundle project has all the right ingredients to be another Northparkes within the same interpreted mineralised system.

Drilling of the deepest hole yet at the Trundle Park prospect has shown “very similar rocks to what you see at Northparkes and other Macquarie Arc porphyries”, CEO Sam Spring says.

“What we’re basically doing is gaining further confirmation that there’s multiple intrusive systems at Trundle Park that have the right rocks, that are comparable to Northparkes, where you’ve got a series of these pipes and economic orebodies that are now supporting the second largest porphyry mine in Australia,” he explained.

“So that original concept that there’s a large mineralised system at surface that we see, with some very good intervals that we have previously reported, and that the skarn system that’s been cooked up by these pipes that are carrying the copper and gold, we’re now starting to see the right rocks that suggests we are getting to the right parts of those pipes that carry the mineralisation and offer much larger scale and grade potential.

“We haven’t intersected an economic part of one of those pipes just yet, but we certainly are seeing the right signals and minerals and rocks that give us the sense of where to go next to follow up where we think that part of the system lies.”

Kincora’s drilling has extended the skarn mineralisation to the northeast and northwest to over 500m total strike, and it remains open.

Since initial drilling commenced in April last year, Kincora has completed 22 holes for 14,452m at the Trundle project.

Two rigs are currently drilling at the Trundle Park and Mordialloc Northeast prospects, which sit about 10km apart.

Improved geological understanding has provided Kincora with the confidence and vectors to drill to comparable depths to where the core of similar systems occurs elsewhere in the wider and immediate region, at Newcrest Mining’s (ASX:NCM) Cadia and CMOC’s Northparkes respectively.

Cadia hosts 37 million oz of gold and 8.2 million tonnes of copper and is one of the largest and lowest cost mines globally, while Northparkes hosts 4.5 million tonnes of copper and 5.5 million oz of gold.

“Trundle is the only brownfield project held by a junior in this region for porphyries, and what we’ve seen there, albeit technical in nature, is further confirmation that we are in a system that once was right next door to Northparkes,” Spring said.

“So, we’ve just got to keep drilling and fortunately we’ve got the capital from the IPO raising to keep pursuing that for a fair while and see if we can get those self-explanatory numbers confirming we have hit the right part of the system. Find one pipe and your then onto the next given the multiple intrusions hosted on the eastern margin of the complex at Northparkes.”

Meanwhile, Kincora has also drilled the first hole at its Nyngan project which the company said was a “geological success”, intersecting basement volcanics (mainly basalts) from 306m. Exploration at Nyngan is earlier stage than Trundle, seeking to confirm a mineralised system, with co-operative dollar for dollar drilling funding coming from a grant from the NSW government.

The wholly owned Nyngan project covers 762sqkm in highly prospective geologic terrane with encouraging limited previous explorer drilling and increasing neighbouring drilling activities.

Advanced preparations are also underway to begin drilling at the advanced and highly prospective Fairholme project this month. Drilling at Fairholme will take place in a proven mineralised system with some ore grade intervals previously not followed up less than 15km away from the ‘gold corridor’ at Evolution Mining’s (ASX:EVN) flagship and world-class Cowal mine, which hosts a resource of 9.7 million oz of gold.

Kincora’s upcoming program will look to replicate the exploration targets, techniques and success achieved by Evolution at Cowal.

In other news, Kincora noted progress relating to the previously announced deal for its Mongolian asset portfolio, with Resilience Mining set on track to shortly achieve an Initial Public Offering on the ASX.

Kincora will retain 9.9% in Resilience post the ASX listing and a minimum $5m fund raising, and retain a 20% carried asset level interest. Subject to successful IPO, Resilience is expected to start drilling next quarter.

This article was developed in collaboration with Kincora Copper, 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.