Maiden resource at Duke’s Mt Flora could be monstrously big

Duke’s upcoming resource estimate for its Mt Flora project could exceed expectations after drilling quadrupled the width of the mineralised area.

The latest drilling includes 110 intersections of copper, silver and gold mineralisation above a 0.2 per cent copper equivalent cut-off with a top hit of 13m at 1.27 per cent copper, 18.4 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.02g/t gold from 54m.

Importantly, the reported holes now cover a strike of 260m, a width of 550m and a vertical depth of 270m.

Duke Exploration (ASX:DEX) added the mineralisation continues to be predictable and consistent in width, copper grade and orientation between drill holes both down dip and along strike, which increases the confidence level in the planned resource and mining studies at Mt Flora.

“The results from the next four lines of resource drilling at Mt Flora are better than expected, with the width of the mineralised area four times wider than originally interpreted and the total mineralised area seven times larger than the interpreted mineralised area used to determine the Exploration Target quoted when we listed,” chairman Toko Kapea explained.

“The newly discovered Quarry mineralisation has become more continuous to the north of the granodiorite contact and it is now clear this new discovery will contribute significantly to the growing resource potential at Mt Flora.”

He added that based on the new results and mineralisation being seen in the Phase Two drilling, the company was confident that the Mt Flora resource would exceed the upper range of the exploration target of between 5.5Mt to 12Mt grading 0.5 per cent to 0.7 per cent copper, 5g/t to 15g/t silver and 0.1g/t gold.

Duke — Drill section of the main copper lodes at Mt Flora constrained by the Phase One drilling in relation to historical drilling, Mt Flora underground mine workings and the re-interpreted granodiorite contact. Pic: Supplied

Future Activity

Planning for an interim resource estimate based on the Phase One drilling is now underway with a maiden resource expected to be announced by the middle of 2021.

The company will also complete Phase Two drilling at Mt Flora and the Quarry Anomaly, complete follow up geophysics surveys at Quorn to allow planning of a drilling program to test results from this work and extend the gradient array, and soil sampling to cover anomalous areas from the Quorn surveys that are open.

Other activities include completing gradient array and soil surveys over the Isens Underground mine area with the goal of starting drilling in the second quarter, finalising land access and drilling planning at the Prairie Creek gold target, and sourcing a second rig to fast track drilling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Duke Exploration, 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.