Historic prospecting pit discoveries at Mt Chalmers opens up new exploration options for QMines

QMines (ASX: QML) has identified a number of potential new drill targets thanks to a hand-on study of historic ground at the Mt Chalmers copper and gold project near Rockhampton in Queensland.

A QMines team and contracted geologists have identified previously unrecorded azurite and malachite bearing weathered gossan and breccia in historic prospecting pits at the mine site.

Geologists target azurite and malachite as a potential sign that supergene and oxidised portions of sulphide copper deposits may be nearby.

Hand-held XRF analysis has already supported the find by returning high-grade copper readings.

The company’s management believe the discovery of supergene copper carbonate minerals such azurite and malachite is an encouraging development and have added further potential future drilling targets.

VTEM survey match

Importantly, the new discoveries were made while the company was undertaking on-the-ground studies of versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) anomalies identified by a recent VTEM survey.

The new finds and match up with the Tracker 1 (T1) target identified in that survey.

The T1 area, along with Tracker 2 (T2) and Tracker 3 (T3) were identified during a lengthy study of the Mt Chalmers region collating and digitising all available historical data which included soil geochemistry, rock chip sampling, geological mapping and structural geological interpretations.

The T1 area is receiving initial attention in the company’s assessment amongst a number of priority EM targets identified in this area.

The current work is a lead-up to the undertaking of drilling on the highest priority EM targets where existing soil geochemistry, mineralised outcrop and structural geological interpretations align.

QMines is planning to commence preparation for the new drilling campaign over the coming weeks.

To date there has been no exploration drilling undertaken on any of the T1 targets. The company is investigating the potential to find a new Volcanic Hosted Massive Sulphide (VHMS) mineral system similar to the known Mt Chalmers system.

“Once drilling is completed at the Mt Chalmers west pit chasing resource extensions, the rig will start to test multiple Electromagnetic anomalies generated from the recent survey. The first of those will be at Tracker 1 where the company has discovered visible copper mineralisation up to 30.04% copper in old workings,” QMines’ managing director Andrew Sparke said.

Follow-up drilling already underway

The proposed new programme will follow up the company’s current drilling work at Mt Chalmers.

That drilling campaign, which kicked off last week, will initially focus on extending the Mt Chalmers resource west of the west pit, where it remains open.

Utilising the company’s privately-owned RC drill rig is targeting approximately 10 holes for approximately 2,000m.

Plenty of history

The Mt Chalmers mine began in 1890 as an underground copper, gold and silver mine and smelting operation.

Larger-scale open-cut mining started in 1980 and ceased in 1982, after which the site was placed into care and maintenance.

The historic mine produced 1.2Mt at 2.0% copper, 3.6g/t gold and 19g/t silver between 1898-1982.

The project has a current measured, indicated and inferred resource (JORC 2012) of 11.86Mt at 1.22% copper equivalent for 144,700t copper equivalent.