Tartana Minerals Returns Strong Copper-Gold Assays from Exploration at Muscleville Project in FNQ

Recent sampling at Tartana Minerals’ (ASX: TAT) Muscleville prospect, located close to its namesake copper mine in far north Queensland, has returned strong copper-gold results to enhance future drill targets.

The results confirm the existence of copper and gold-silver mineralisation in new zones near the existing open pit, and highlight structurally-controlled mineralisation along the sheared contact separating the Chillagoe Formation from the Hodgkinson Formation with pathfinder elements that support broader exploration potential.

The zones lie within Tartana’s Valentino exploration target, which the company previously estimated at between 3.9 million tonnes and 27Mt at a grade of up to 0.8% copper for between 20,000 tonnes and 215,000t copper.

Highlight Drilling Results

Drilling at the recently-excavated Costean 1 (215 metres in length) returned best assays of 4 metres at 2.07 grams per tonne gold and 20.5g/t silver, with grab sampling returning up to 6.48g/t gold and 38.4g/t silver.

Costean 2 (53m length) returned a highlight of 9m at 1.04% copper, including 3m at 2.68% copper with 13.6 g/t silver, while surface rock chip samples from historical workings west of the Tartana pit assayed up to 11.9% copper.

Tartana will use the results to refine future drilling programs at Muscleville and across the Valentino area.

The company will aim to extend identified zones along strike and at depth with follow-up drilling, building on historical intersections such as 82.3m at 0.6% copper and 9m at 0.71% copper.

Molloy Regional Acquisition

Tartana has initiated a deal with private copper explorer Curwon to acquire the Molloy Regional project, which covers highly-prospective ground along strike from the historical Mount Molloy copper-zinc mine in far north Queensland.

The project will expand the company’s footprint across the Hodgkinson Province and form part of its Herberton-Dimbulah tenements, which includes prospective tin, tungsten, antimony, rare earths, and copper projects.

Tartana will pay Curwon a consideration of 10 million shares for the land, which comprises 52 sub-blocks featuring stratigraphic extensions to the north and south of Mount Molloy, and east of the Freedom gold mine.

Previous exploration by Curwon included reconnaissance mapping, as well as a high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey in 2022.