Xanadu Mines expects to deliver an updated JORC resource for its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia before the end of the year, following the discovery of new high-grade zones during infill drilling.
The company has completed about half of its massive 30,000m diamond drill campaign as it targets resource extensions at its Stockwork Hill and White Hill deposits.
Kharmagtai already boasts an impressive mineral resource estimate of 1.1 billion tonnes for 3 million tonnes of contained copper and 8 million ounces of gold. Now, Xanadu says its latest assays from 31 drillholes show results equal to or better than the grades used in 2021 to define its resource.
Drilling highlights from Stockwork Hill show a massive 294m intercept grading 0.32 per cent copper and 0.26 grams per tonne gold from 122m, including a 12m section going 0.77 per cent copper and 1.82g/t gold from 145m and a deeper 34m hit at 1.1 per cent copper and 0.1g/t gold from 285m. The intercept was taken from the central portion of the deposit and exceeds the company’s model prediction of 0.3 per cent copper equivalent.
Another hole at Stockwork Hill recorded 22m at 0.95 per cent copper from 411m, including 4.1m reading a solid 3.82 per cent copper. Additional drilling is being planned to test for further extensions of the higher-grade zones.
Xanadu Mines executive chairman and managing director Colin Moorhead said: “Our extensional and infill drilling program has progressed efficiently and is demonstrating results in line with or materially better than the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate. Pleasingly we’ve intersected new high-grade zones at Stockwork Hill within the existing Resource boundary, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the PFS.”
Significant hits from drilling at White Hill include 44m at 0.27 per cent copper and 0.16g/t gold from 72m, with a second hole recording 30m going 0.31 per cent copper and 0.22g/t gold from 183m.
Xanadu has four diamond drill rigs working on completing the final 15,000m of its infill program at Kharmagtai as it looks to increase the resource confidence category from inferred to indicated.
Just last month, the company kicked off an 18,000m discovery exploration drilling campaign at Kharmagtai, with results set to be incorporated into an ongoing prefeasibility study (PFS).
The program includes two additional diamond drill rigs, with one set to cover 8000m of deep exploration targeting high-grade and large-scale mineralisation at depth. A further 6000m is planned, depending on results of its phase-one campaign.
The company’s second diamond rig is set to drill 10,000m of shallow holes, aiming to identify open pit-style resources in five unexplored porphyry clusters within the wider Kharmagtai area. The shallow exploration program will test several high-priority targets identified from a geochemical survey in 2016 that highlighted the company’s Golden Eagle, Zephyr and Zaraa prospects.
Management says its deep drillholes have been designed to uncover a potential high-grade, large-scale and deeper “Oyu Tolgoi”-style deposit early in the study process. That Rio Tinto-run operation is regarded as being one of the world’s biggest copper and gold deposits.
In March, Xanadu completed two phases of its strategic partnership with Chinese copper giant Zijin Mining, giving it access to funding for exploration. The deal saw Zijin invest US$35 million (AU$52 million) and a 50-50 joint venture (JV) has been created between the two partners at a project level, with Xanadu the operator on the ground.
The JV is funding the PFS and drilling campaigns with an aim towards a decision to mine by the end of next year.
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By Michael Philipps
