QMines flags copper and gold resource growth potential at Mt Chalmers

• An ongoing data review has highlighted new gold (+10g/t) and copper (+10g/t) zones at the Mt Chalmers project
• Most of the mineralised areas remain open along strike
• QMines intends to announce a series of updates related to other known gold targets as the work proceeds

Special Report: New copper-gold zones have emerged from QMines’ ongoing exploration review at Mt Chalmers, highlighting potential new drilling targets.

The study initially focused on the area surrounding the historic Mt Chalmers copper and gold mine, where the company has several JORC resources and exploration targets.

These include the Mt Chalmers, Woods Shaft, Botos and Mt Warminster deposits, which lie along the Cawarral Gold Trend northeast of Rockhampton in central Queensland.

QMines (ASX:QML) has invested heavily in its geological data base which to date has generated more than 50 exploration targets for follow up.

This data base re-interpretation, based on pre-existing drill data, was designed to generate further gold and copper targets near the proposed Mt Chalmers processing plant.

So far, the work has indicated that the mineralisation is clustered and potentially, in the case of Woods Shaft, Mt Chalmers and Botos, a stacked system of repetitive mineralisation events which suggests greater potential than has previously been considered.

The diagrams below also show the contoured values of copper and gold from existing drilling at the Mt Chalmers project and highlights the gaps in the drilled areas largely due to the historic focus on drill testing either soil anomalies, geophysical anomalies and areas of mapped outcropping mineralisation.

Contour mapping has identified precious metals at t 0.1g/t, 1g/t, and 10 g/t, while base metals were contoured at 0.1%, 1%, and 10%, signalling broad and discrete trends in the metal distribution.

QML eyeing 10,000-20,000tpa production

QML is on its way to becoming a 10,000–20,000tpa copper equivalent producer with a Pre Feasibility Study last year indicating a 10.4-year project costing $191m with a 1.8-year payback and NPV of $373m.

Mt Chalmers has historically produced 1.2 million tonnes at 3.6 grams per tonne gold, 2% copper and 19g/t silver on and off between 1898 and 1982.

The project has a current resource of 11.3Mt at 0.75% copper, 0.42g/t gold, 0.23% zinc, 4.6g/t silver and 4.3% sulphur for 86,000t of contained copper, 153,000 ounces of gold, 1.6 million ounces of silver, 24,000t of zinc and 483,000t of sulphur, as well as a reserve of 9.6Mt at 0.65% copper, 0.48g/t gold, 0.27% zinc, 5.2g/t silver and 4.3% sulphur.

A robust resource and strong growth outlook place QMines in a favourable position to deliver value through disciplined development and exploration success.

More from QMines: The view from Mount Mackenzie

Background on deposits

The Mt Chalmers deposit has long been interpreted as a Kuroko-style VHMS deposit, which extends over a 1,200m strike length.

While the deposit is relatively undeformed, there is some evidence that gold and copper mineralisation may have structural controls which could extend beyond the known resource.

Meanwhile, the Woods Shaft deposit currently has a strike length of at least 500m with values exceeding 10g/t gold in drilling to the north.

QML believes there is at least 250m of additional strike length of known extensions, which has been constrained by the limit of resource drilling at the project.

Over at the Botos prospect, there is evidence of a second parallel structure, ~200m to the southwest, partway between Botos and Mt Chalmers.

This additional zone only has broad scale reconnaissance drilling and remains open along strike with values of greater than 1g/t gold.

The Mt Westminster prospect lies ~2km north-west of the Mt Chalmers open pit.

This area has received a modest amount of historic drilling and remains open in several directions.

This article was developed in collaboration with QMines, 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.