Hammer Metals kicks-off drilling at Mount Isa JV, Bronzewing South
Hammer Metals has planned 12,000m of drilling at Bronzewing South.
After raising $1.14 million from a share placement last month, Hammer Metals (ASX: HMX) has kicked-off exploration at its Mount Isa joint venture along with an upcoming drilling program at its Bronzewing South gold project.
In late November last year, Japan Oil Gas and Metals National Corporation executed a joint venture to farm in to the Even Steven, Mount Philip, Dronfield West and Malbon targets within Hammer’s Mount Isa copper-gold project.
The joint venture covers 290 square kilometres of Hammer’s 2,200sq km landholding in Queensland, with JOGMEC to spend $6 million on exploration by March 2024 to lock-in a 60% stake.
Mineralisation at the joint venture targets is considered similar to Glencore’s Ernest Henry iron oxide-copper-gold mine near Cloncurry in Queensland’s north-west.
According to Hammer, Ernest Henry has a resource of 220 million tonnes at 1.1% copper and 0.5 grams per tonne gold.
Preliminary exploration at the joint venture includes detailed gravity surveys and ground electromagnetic surveys.
Work will follow up on anomalies and rock chips that returned up to 18.4g/t gold and 15.15% in previous exploration.
Drilling of targets is anticipated to begin in the June quarter.
Bronzewing South
Over at Hammer’s Bronzewing South project in Western Australia, Hammer is planning to begin a combined aircore and reverse circulation program this week, which follows on from a maiden campaign last year.
Better results from maiden drilling were 14m at 1.8g/t gold from 12m, including 3m at 5.57g/t gold from 21m; and 10m at 1.82g/t gold from 9m, including 3m at 5.78g/t gold from 12m.
The upcoming program will comprise 12,000m and focus on North Orelia, Bronzewing South and Ken’s Bore.
“It’s pleasing to see the evolution of Hammer’s exploration programs,” Hammer managing director Daniel Thomas said.
“To effectively plan two aggressive field programs on separate projects is a testament to the organisation and capabilities of a small, flexible agile and forward-thinking team.”
He added the upcoming months will offer up new geological information at Mount Isa, while also providing a steady flow of drill results from Bronzewing South.