Brisbane, Jan 14, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - CopperCo Limited (ASX: CUO) announce high grade copper intercepts at Flying Horse Deeps project.
Broad, high grade oxide and sulphide copper intercepts returned from deeper drilling beneath the Flying Horse oxide copper resource.
Significant sulphide copper intercepts include:
- 11 metres at 3.57 % Cu from 132 metres
- 21 metres at 2.86 % Cu from 77 metres
- 15 metres at 1.86 % Cu from 81 metres
- 34 metres at 1.02 % Cu from 254 metres
- 6 metres at 1.37 % Cu from 106 metres
- 20 metres at 0.79 % Cu from 127 metres
Significant oxide copper intercepts from pre-collar RC drilling include:
- 9.6 metres at 5.40 % Cu from 80.2 metres in FDH012
- 6 metres at 1.98 % Cu from 9 metres in FHD016
- 11 metres at 2.87 % Cu from 41 metres in FHD019
Mineralisation extends over 600 metres of strike, up to 400 metres wide and to depths of 300 metres.
Potential for a shallow, moderate sized copper sulphide resource is being investigated with drilling to continue through the wet season.
Background
The flagship of CopperCo's Mount Isa tenement holding is the Lady Annie Copper Project, located 137 km north of Mount Isa (Figures 1 and 2). The Project currently encompasses oxide copper reserves of 142,600 tonnes from global oxide and sulphide resources of 40Mt at 0.9% Cu, containing 358,700 tonnes of copper metal. Ore Reserve updates are being completed for Flying Horse and Lady Annie and will be announced in the current Quarter.
The Project will initially mine five ore bodies over an eight-year mine life by conventional open pit mining. Ore will be treated by a heap leaching, solvent extraction and electrowinning process (SX-EW). Mining operations commenced in June 2007, development of the mine and processing infrastructure has been completed and first production of copper cathode from the Lady Annie Project occurred in October 2007. The Company will initially produce at an annualised rate of 19,000tpa, ramping up to 25,000tpa by mid 2008. In January 2007 CopperCo's exploration objective was to increase the contained copper in the Global Mineral Resource inventory to at least 300,000 tonnes Cu. This objective was achieved in December 2007.
The Company continues to see great potential for further resource development and discovery of oxide copper and is evaluating further production upgrades to the copper oxide leach operation above 25,000 tpa. Now that a solid foundation has been established for the copper oxide leach operations the Company will be testing the potential for copper sulphide resources beneath the oxide caps at Lady Annie, Flying Horse, Mount Clarke and Buckley River. The conceptual target for exploration is to ultimately define sufficient suphide copper resources to support a 20,000 tonne per annum 10 year mine life copper in concentrate operation.
Flying Horse Deeps
CopperCo Limited (CopperCo or The Company) is pleased to announce broad, high grade copper sulphide results from an on-going drilling programme being undertaken at Flying Horse to assess the copper sulphide potential beneath the currently defined oxide copper Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve.
Drilling to date has comprised full or partial completion of 25 drill holes, including 20 Reverse Circulation "pre-collars" for 1,682.2 metres and 13 diamond core "tails" for 2,820.85 metres. Complete results have now been received for 7 of 13 completed drill holes.
Significant sulphide copper results include:
- 11 metres at 3.57 % Cu from 132 metres in MK1021C
- 21 metres at 2.86 % Cu from 77 metres in FHD019
- 15 metres at 1.86 % Cu from 81 metres in FHD031
- 34 metres at 1.02 % Cu from 254 metres in MK1021C
- 6 metres at 1.37 % Cu from 106 metres in FHD012
- 20 metres at 0.79 % Cu from 127 metres in FHD012
Significant oxide results from pre-collaring through the previously defined oxide copper cap include:
- 9.6 metres at 5.40 % Cu from 80.2 metres in FDH012
- 6 metres at 1.98 % Cu from 9 metres in FHD016
- 11 metres at 2.87 % Cu from 41 metres in FHD019
The on-going drill programme will test sulphide mineralisation potential over a 600 metre strike length, over lateral widths of 400 metres and at vertical depths up to 300 metres. Drilling is primarily targeting 4 structural domains beneath the Flying Horse oxide copper cap. Three of these domains are defined by a series of parallel, subvertical faults termed the Western, Central and Kelly Fault zones. These three zones intersect a low angle thrust termed the Spinifex Fault at depth. It is believed that the intersection of the Spinifex fault and the subvertical structures provides the focus for the majority of mineralisation intersected to date.
Strongly mineralised zones are associated with disseminated and/or vein hosted chalcocite and chalcopyrite within strongly sheared and brecciated dolomitic siltstones of the Gunpowder Creek Formation. The geological model of the prospect is evolving with each deeper drill hole. More drill data is required to clarify this geometry.
The potential for a modest tonnage, shallow sulphide resource will continue to be investigated with a further 2,000 metres of RC (as pre-collars) and 2,000 metres of diamond core to complete a comprehensive first pass assessment of the sulphide potential.
Given the shallow nature of the sulphide systems, the Company will look to sequentially develop the potential resource through open cut mining methods rather than underground, at the completion of the oxide mining phase at each pit operation.
