Peak gains first-mover advantage in emerging WA copper province

Peak has picked up fresh ground surrounding its highly prospective Copper Hills project in Western Australia, giving it control over a previously unidentified copper province.

Peak Minerals (ASX:PUA) is establishing itself as a first mover in an emerging copper province in Western Australia with an exclusive deal to acquire CU2 WA.

CU2 has a portfolio of 33 base and precious metals tenements spanning about 225sqkm in the Meekatharra region, an area which has previously been primarily explored for gold and titanium-vanadium mineralisation.

The company has a 100 per cent interest in 31 pending tenements and earn-in agreements over another two tenements with KOP Ventures and Taruga Minerals.

Peak Copper — Peak Minerals tenure inclusive of acquisition & farm-in tenure. Pic: Supplied.

“Through the acquisition of CU2, Peak Minerals would control a significant ground position in the Meekatharra region over potentially a new under-explored copper province,” managing director Wayne Loxton said.

“Recent drilling at the company’s Copper Hills project has validated the geological model of a magmatic intrusive system and clearly demonstrated high-grade copper sulphide mineralisation exists within the system.

“Limited previous exploration for copper mineralisation has been completed over the CU2 tenements and the company is excited about the prospectivity of the region.”

In the coming months, Peak plans to undertake an extensive field-based exploration program consisting of gravity, electromagnetic and drilling programs to determine the potential of the province.

District-scale copper potential

Copper Hills in particular has the potential to be a game changer for the company, with the project showing early potential to host what could be a large magmatic copper-nickel sulphide system.

Exploration results for the CU2 tenements indicate mineralised gabbroic intrusives throughout the project area similar to those at Copper Hills and Lady Alma where copper sulphide mineralisation has been confirmed.

There is a similar target to Lady Alma at the Ta Val prospect, with an untested electromagnetic (EM) conductor and historic values to the south of the EM anomaly of 0.64m at 0.68 per cent copper from 46.5m, including 1.52m at 1.8 per cent copper from 51.68m; and 24m at 0.59 per cent from 25m, including 1m at 1.52 per cent from 47m.

Peak Minerals — Magnetic TMI image with outline of JV. The red zones represent high magnetism, and at Lady Alma and Copper Hills this maps out the intrusive units. Pic: Supplied

This emerging copper province has shown similarities to OZ Minerals’ (ASX:OZL) Succoth copper and Nebo-Babel nickel-copper prospects in the Musgrave Province of Western Australia. Nebo-Babel extends for 5km.

Surficial copper, nickel and cobalt anomalism has also been uncovered throughout the belt which has not been tested by drilling.

Rock chip results from the Lannister prospect returned grades of 4.46 per cent copper and 0.233g/t gold, and 1.49 per cent copper and 0.243g/t gold.

“The significance of acquiring the greater Copper Hills project is being able to systematically explore in a large area with known copper mineralisation,” principal geologist Barbara Duggan said.

“Previous explorers have been impeded by a fragmented tenement holding and have focused on a prospect level. It is through this extensive ground consolidation that Peak can enable a province scale targeting approach to identify and test potential mineralised intrusives.

“The exploration targeting model and methodologies applied to Copper Hills prospect by Peak has successfully identified magmatic copper sulphide mineralisation.

“Through this enhanced ground holding the same methodologies will be applied in order to prioritise and systematically evaluate the delineated targets. In the event of exploration success, Peak is positioned to actively explore the entire belt and capitalise on its proprietary knowledgebase.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Peak Minerals, 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.