QMines exploring all avenues to continue its growth plans
QMines (ASX: QML) is leaving no stone unturned as it investigates potential opportunities to add to its portfolio of mining opportunities.
The company has revealed it has been involved in a number of meetings with third parties related to potential corporate, offtake, royalty and cornerstone investment style connections.
As a follow-up to those discussions, QMines is currently preparing a data room which will allow various parties to have a closer look at the company’s assets.
While the company says it has received no formal offers to date, discussions remain ongoing.
QMines is also assessing several non-dilutive ways to fund its planned growth strategy without the need for a typical broker lead capital raising and it is buoyed by the level of interest it has received.
Develin Creek example
An example of the company’s growth strategy was its recent acquisition of the Develin Creek project in Queensland.
In late August, QMines picked up 100% of the Develin Creek copper-zinc project from Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC).
The project is strategically located just 90km west of the company’s flagship Mt Chalmers copper and gold project near Rockhampton.
In announcing the asset purchase, managing director Andrew Sparke said Develin Creek’s proximity to Mt Chalmers and its high-grade resources offered the potential future development of the combined resources.
He added that QMines had been eyeing off Develin Creek for some time as it has the potential to provide the scale required to progress the Mt Chalmers project towards sustainable copper production.
New mineral resource estimate
QMines wasted no time in improving its understanding of Develin Creek’s upside, producing an updated mineral resource estimate for the project less than a month after concluding the acquisition.
The new mineral resource estimate, which included information from the Sulphide City, Scorpion and Window deposits, now stands at 3.2 million tonnes at 1.61% copper equivalent for 51,360 tonnes of copper equivalent ore.
QMines also revealed that the combined Mt Chalmers and Develin Creek resources now stands at 15.1 million tonnes at 1.3% copper equivalent for 195,800 tonnes of copper equivalent ore.
Mr Sparke said this was the fifth mineral resource estimate QMines has delivered since listing in May 2021.
QMines believes there is significant upside to be tapped into at Develin Creek, with 47% of the new resource classified in the indicated JORC category.
The company is now moving quickly to undertake resource, metallurgy and geotech drilling at Develin Creek ahead of a proposed pre-feasibility study.
Artillery Road discovery
The Develin Creek acquisition was not the only big news for QMines during the quarter with the company announcing a maiden copper and zinc discovery at the Artillery Road prospect within the Mt Chalmers project.
Artillery Road was initially discovered by a QMines airborne VTEM geophysical survey.
The company confirmed surface gossan marked a large body of semi-massive sulphides with visible sphalerite and chalcopyrite in a pyrite-pyrrhotite skarn at Artillery Road.
The company is eager to follow-up the VTEM survey’s success in defining this mineralisation, with Artillery Road being the first of 34 electromagnetic anomalies to be tested.
QMines is now preparing to drill the VT04 VTEM anomaly, which was identified by the airborne survey despite being completely hidden by surface colluvium.