Breakthrough Minerals (ASX: BTM) will acquire the prospective Queensland copper-gold project (QCGP) near Mt Isa as part of the $15.5 million purchase of private explorer Dingo Minerals from Aeris Resources (ASX: AIS).
The QCGP sits on 952 square kilometres of tenure (including over 21 sq km of granted mining leases), and has a global mineral resource estimate of 18.8 million tonnes at 1.07% copper equivalent (CuEq) for 200,000 tonnes contained CuEq metal across the measured (3%), indicated (31%), and inferred (66%) categories.
It comprises the Barbara, Mt Colin Mine, and Soldiers Cap/Cloncurry exploration projects, along with the historical Hazel Creek copper-gold project (HCCGP).
The HCCGP includes the Turpentine and Turpentine South/Eight Mile Creek North deposits across 294 sq km (105 sub-blocks) of granted tenure, and contains over half of the QCGP’s current global resource.
Turpentine hosts a mineral resource estimate of 8.7Mt at 1.16% CuEq (1.03% copper, 0.16g/t gold, and 0.34g/t silver) for 101,000t of contained CuEq metal in the inferred category.
Turpentine Diamond Program
Breakthrough has planned an initial 3,000m diamond campaign at Turpentine to test for copper-gold extensions and follow-up reverse circulation work to advance regional targets and discover new areas of mineralisation at historical anomalies.
Turpentine’s mineralisation remains open to the north, down-plunge of a previous diamond hole that returned a high-grade intercept of 11m at 2.0% copper and 0.5g/t gold from 277m including 3m at 5.1% copper and 1.3g/t gold from 277m.
Drilling will also aim to expand current mineral resources at Turpentine South and Eight Mile Creek North, convert the advanced Eight Mile Creek East exploration target to a mineral resource estimate, and discover new areas of copper-gold mineralisation at untested electromagnetic targets and geochemical anomalies within the Turpentine SE Offset and Brumby prospects.
The company will prioritise Turpentine SE Offset due to its proximity and geological similarity to Turpentine and limited previous drilling of one hole to 100m depth.
Future Exploration Focus
Executive director Peretz Schapiro called Hazel Creek a “cornerstone” of the Dingo acquisition.
“Our refined targeting has identified substantial scope for resource growth at Turpentine, and we are looking forward to getting on the ground to follow-up the significant potential,” he said.
Breakthrough has been assessing some of the QCGP’s existing infrastructure to determine if there is an opportunity to monetise some of the unrequired plant and equipment once the transaction is completed.
The company expects the Dingo acquisition to settle by the end of next month.
