Pic: John W Banagan / Stone via Getty Images
Mining
Kincora Copper is expanding its gold-copper prospective ground in NSW’s prolific Lachlan Fold Belt after it noticed similarities to the world class Cowal and Northparkes mines.
Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) has applied for a further 616sqkm in the Lachlan Fold Belt after drilling and geophysics data indicated the potential for the area to host a regionally significant porphyry deposit.
The Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) is a world-class porphyry belt hosting over 100 million oz of gold and more than 24 million tonnes of copper.
“The Mulla project covers a regionally significant gravity low feature which we consider, based on prior limited drilling and regional geophysics, could potentially host a porphyry complex within Macquarie Arc rocks under relatively shallow cover,” John Holliday, technical committee chair, and Peter Leaman, senior VP of exploration, said.
“Similar large-scale gravity lows in the Junee-Narromine Belt of the Macquarie Arc are associated with the world-class Cowal and Northparkes mineralised systems, and the Myall porphyry exploration project.”
If anyone would know what to look for it’s Holliday, who managed and was the principal discoverer during the exploration phases at Cadia. He was also a key figure in the Marsden discovery near Cowal and is a foremost expert on the LFB porphyries.
The Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM)-owned 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.
CEO Sam Spring said the Mulla project hadn’t been drill tested since before the Bre-X downturn, with two broad target zones already identified for follow up activities.
“Mulla adds to the company’s project pipeline in Australia’s leading porphyry belt at a time of increasing neighbouring ground pegging and drilling activities,” he said.
“Only in the last few weeks we have seen significant land grabs in the belt from majors and juniors alike, including adjacent to ongoing drilling activities at our Trundle and Nyngan projects.”
Looking at the updated tenement map of the region (below), significant pegging activity has taken place in the last quarter by Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) and Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL) (formerly known as CleanTeq), both in close proximity to Kincora’s projects and increasing both their already large existing landholdings.
Recent significant pegging activities, key projects and Kincora’s pipeline of near-term drill project
The Mulla project is located in the northern undercover and underexplored section of the Junee-Narromine Belt of the Macquarie Arc and sits south of where Kincora is drilling at its Nyngan project.
The addition of the new ground to Kincora’s portfolio expands its landholding to 1,761sqkm in a highly prospective geologic terrane with encouraging limited previous explorer drilling and increasing neighbouring ground pegging and drilling activities.
The LFB has become one of Australia’s hottest mining addresses thanks to Alkane Resources’ (ASX:ALK) Boda discovery in September 2019.
Kincora is continuing drilling at its Trundle and Nyngan projects, and will start drilling next month at the Fairholme project.
Neighbour Sultan Resources (ASX:SLZ), meanwhile, is drilling its Big Hill gold-copper prospect, which borders Kincora Copper’s (ASX:KCC) Cundumbul licence.
The work is effectively testing Kincora’s Cundumbul project at the same time, with publicly available airborne magnetics indicating about 80 per cent of the 5km long by 2.5km wide Big Hill Magnetic Complex is almost split equally across Sultan’s and Kincora’s ground and the IP target straddles the licence boundary.
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.
Mining
Mining
Mining
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
