Alma lines up ducks to kick off new Queensland copper quest

Alma Metals plans to soon begin a core-drilling program to both upgrade and expand its copper-molybdenum resource at its flagship Briggs project that sits about 60km from the deep-water port of Gladstone in Queensland.

In a vote of confidence for the project, newly-appointed contractor iDrilling  has agreed to take $240,000 worth of its drilling fees in Alma shares priced at 1.2c – a 33 per cent premium to its existing price.

The company says drilling will start next month, with mobilisation of the equipment underway. An initial 2000m drill core program will test the intrusive contact on the south-west side of the Briggs Central resource where an intriguing geochemical anomaly has been identified.

Alma plans to infill the drill spacing to 80m for a significant portion of the Central resource, aiming to potentially revise it upwards into the indicated category. Any upgrade will feed into supporting the scoping study due later this year.

The company will also test for higher grades in the top 200m from surface, as was evidenced in recent drilling conducted on the north-east side of Briggs. Additional drilling will be completed at its Southern Porphyry target in a bid to boost the project’s total resource.

Alma Metals managing director Frazer Tabeart said: “We’re really pleased to recommence drilling at the massive Briggs copper project in Queensland. With the recent rally in the copper price underpinned by strong fundamentals, there’s no better time to drill out such a large resource and kick-off a scoping study”.

Management believes there is significant scope to expand the resource at Briggs, which contains 415 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent copper and 31 parts per million molybdenum. The contained copper within the resource sits at more than 1 million tonnes – an impressive copper “booty” in today’s rising price environment.

The company has released an exploration target based on previous work at the project, consisting of between 440 million tonnes and 880 million tonnes at 0.2 per cent to 0.3 per cent copper and 25ppm to 40ppm molybdenum.

Assay results from the program are expected in August, with material from drilling to be used in the next stage of metallurgical testwork. For the first time, the work will include an evaluation of molybdenum recovery levels for the upcoming scoping study.

Alma has a 30 per cent interest in the project after completing an earn-in joint-venture (JV) with Canterbury Resources. It can earn up to 70 per cent via a staged earn-in agreement on the operation it considers to be in a tier-one jurisdiction with exceptional surrounding infrastructure.

The Gladstone deep-water port, heavy-haulage railway, gas pipelines, high-voltage powerlines and the Dawson Highway are all in close proximity.

The company also has the prospective East Kimberley copper project in WA, sitting north-west of Wyndham. Management believe it offers an exciting opportunity, but it is still at an early stage.

The price of copper has been on a run lately, which may start to generate some real interest in Alma’s Queensland project.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au