As the price of zinc settles in to near-10-year highs, soon-to-be re-listed Pursuit Minerals believes the time is right to develop high-grade zinc projects in Queensland.

Pursuit, which was spun out of a reverse takeover with Burrabulla Corporation, has acquired three base metal projects from Teck Australia — the Australian arm of Canadian mining giant Teck – after wrapping up a $6 million public offer.

Under the deal, Teck has taken a 19.9 per cent stake in Pursuit.

The key projects are Bluebush and Paperbark, in the heart of Queensland’s Mt Isa Super Basin, where Pursuit hopes to discover deposits close to existing infrastructure.

“The Mt Isa Super Basin is a truly world-class metals province and we are looking at a market where tightening supply and declining production are seeing global zinc prices hit 10-year highs,” said Pursuit managing director Jeremy Read.

“The projects we have targeted have enormous potential, with proven resources and proximity to existing infrastructure associated with the recently closed Century Zinc Mine.”

Century was Australia’s biggest open-cut zinc mine from 1999 until it was mothballed in 2015.

Attila Resources acquired Century in March this year, before changing its name to New Century Resources.

Pursuit hoped to realise value from the Bluebush and Paperbark project over the next one or two years, Mr Read said.

“Our Bluebush project — just 72km north-east of the Century Mine — hosts zinc mineralisation over an area in excess of 100 sq km, making it one of the largest areas of zinc mineralisation in Australia,” he said.

“The Paperbark project not only hosts an established zinc resource at the JB prospect, but also has confirmed copper oxide and copper sulphide mineralisation, which we will be investigating further.”

Pursuit also bought a third project from Teck near Coober Pedy in South Australia.

“We have the potential to define a substantial iron ore-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit in a minerals province which has produced a number of highly successful IOCG projects, including the Olympic Dam mine,” Mr Read said.

Mr Read has been a director of several junior minerals companies including Meridian Minerals where he delivered a 700 per cent return to investors in 2011.

The time was right to develop Australian zinc projects, he said.

“We’ve identified a value capture window for our zinc projects in the next 12 to 24 months, where prices should continue to be at high levels and zinc projects like Bluebush and Paperbark will be attractive to companies looking to expand their resource base,” Mr Read said.

“The Paperbark project also presents us with an opportunity to define a copper oxide resource early on, which if defined could lead to early to medium term cash flows for the company.”

While no date has been confirmed, the company believes its reinstatement to the ASX is imminent.

Once reinstated, the company will trade under the ticker PUR.

The company will have a market cap of around $13 million. Everblu Capital was lead manager on the public offer.