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Boss Energy and First Quantum report copper hits at Honeymoon uranium site in South Australia

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By Imelda Cotton - 
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Boss Energy’s (ASX: BOE) earn-in partner First Quantum Minerals has intersected basement-hosted copper mineralisation in a maiden drilling program at the Honeymoon tenements in South Australia.

The copper is believed to lie beneath the Yarramba Palaeovalley, which contains the project’s primary uranium mineralisation.

It was discovered during a rotary mud-diamond drilling program in December that included six holes totaling 2,473 metres across the Atlas, Pandora and Yarramba targets.

The program aimed to test several target styles associated with the regionally-anomalous Bimba Formation, which hosts the majority of known base and precious metal occurrences in the region.

First assays returned hits of 16m at 0.27% copper and 0.1 grams per tonne gold from 288m and 47m at 0.19% copper from 404m, with several narrower zones of around 6m containing up to 0.5% copper and 0.12g/t gold.

First Quantum has since agreed to proceed to the next stage of the earn-in arrangement.

Exploration earn-in

Boss entered into an exploration earn-in agreement with global copper company First Quantum Minerals in February over the base metals rights at five of the Honeymoon tenements.

The agreement gives First Quantum the right to earn a 51% interest in the base metals endowment by spending $6m on exploration plus a further 24% interest by sole-funding all base metals expenditure up to a decision to mine.

After acquiring a maximum 75% interest, First Quantum will continue to sole fund the required studies and programs up to the receipt of all permits for the start of construction.

At that point, Boss can elect to maintain its 25% equity in the base metals portion of Honeymoon by funding its share of project development costs.

Uranium rights

Boss will retain the sole right to explore and exploit all uranium discoveries at Honeymoon.

The earn-in agreement allows Boss to remain fully focused on all aspects of exploration, development and production relating to the project’s uranium content while having exposure to Honeymoon’s base metals potential at no added cost.