Kincora Copper has delivered a key project milestone with the release of a large maiden JORC resource at its wholly owned Bronze Fox project. Bronze Fox hosts an existing mining license, is located within trucking distance to the world’s largest consumer of copper, China, and offers potential near-term project development from its at-surface oxide material.

Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) has today announced a maiden inferred copper-gold resource, within 325m from surface, and an updated exploration target immediately below the resource, for the West Kasulu prospect.

The initial resource of 194.1Mt at 0.22% copper and 0.07 grams per tonne (g/t) containing 426,000 tonnes of copper and 437,000 ounces of gold includes an at surface oxidised copper component, with a further exploration target of 100-300Mt at 0.25-0.35% copper equivalent based only on historical drilling (and is open).

The resource and exploration target were commissioned and paid for by Resilience Mining Mongolia Limited, and reflect the proposed strategy to focus on, and derive value from, the potential for early development of the near-surface oxide resource and shallow porphyry expansion potential, while seeking partners to fund deeper drilling.

The majority of the resource and exploration target are situated within the existing Bronze Fox mining license, with the balance being on the adjoining Tourmaline Hills exploration licence, with desktop studies having previously been undertaken for the at surface oxide material.

“The Bronze Fox project consists of one of the largest copper-gold systems in Mongolia with only modest drilling having been completed,” CEO Sam Spring said.

“The consolidated West Kasulu prospect has only had three years of unimpeded prior drilling activity and is located on the margin of, and is a small portion of, one of three large and underexplored intrusive complexes identified to date at the Bronze Fox project.”

Kincora’s projects are located in the world class Southern Gobi porphyry belt that has lured several miners including heavyweight Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), which is in the process of building an underground operation at its Oyu Tolgoi project that is on track to become the world’s 4th largest copper mine by 2030.

Rio Tinto is also in the middle of a $US2.7 billion cash offer to acquire the remaining 49% of Turquoise Hill Resources that it doesn’t already own and thereby increase its effective ownership in the Oyu Tolgoi project.

The ongoing open pit mine at Oyu Tolgoi was commissioned within only a five-year period, providing proof of concept for new mines to be built quickly in the Southern Gobi desert, which is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world and located within trucking distance to China.

Also in the region is Xanadu Mine’s (ASX:XAM) flagship Kharmagtai project, in which multi-national but mainland China headquartered and top 10 copper producer Zijing Mining has only recently agreed to a total investment of $58m.

Kincora Copper (asx kcc)
Kincora’s projects in Mongolia’s Southern Gobi porphyry belt

Kincora’s strategic and district scale position is just trucking distance from global powerhouse China, which consumes over half of the world’s copper.

Focused on maximising value

Kincora is focused on extracting value from its Mongolian assets via a divestment, which will allow the company to continue to focus on its ongoing exploration activities in Australia.

Spring commented that “it is pleasing to see the scale of previous exploration efforts at West Kasulu further quantified, with the system remaining open along strike and at depth. We see significant scale potential from further drilling both at West Kasulu, but also at other portions of the Bronze Fox intrusive complex, plus the two other known and even lesser explored intrusive complexes at the project.

“As noted in our July 8th press release, Kincora remains committed to extracting appropriate value from our wholly owned Mongolian assets for the benefit of our shareholders and seeing the projects move forward.

“We have worked with Resilience for a significant period of time, they have done a great job with this resource and updated exploration target and have significant in-house expertise to advance the oxide and near-surface potential at West Kasulu.

“We think there are some quick and easy wins available at Bronze Fox. The door is still open to them, there is strategic optionality also at play for Kincora, as our strategy remains focused towards active and systematic exploration activities in Australia.”

Spring also noted to Stockhead that a recent share overhang, which had impacted trading both on the TSX Venture and ASX markets, had only last week been cleared.

 

 

 

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.