Native Mineral Resources has expanded its Palmerville copper-gold project in north Queensland following the grant of an additional exploration licence on the eastern margins of its tenement holding in the region that hosts the recent Leane’s copper discovery. The company now holds over 1,820 square kilometres of the mineral-rich Chillagoe Formation which hosts the nearby Mungana, Red Dome and Griffith’s deposits.
The new Palmerville South tenement covers an area of 214 square kilometres and surrounds the existing tenure hosting the company’s Leane’s copper-gold discovery.
The tenement has been granted for an initial 5-year term, which commenced on 2 of February 2021, with the Queensland Department of Resources also approving the company’s preliminary exploration program across the ground.
First pass exploration will include mapping, sampling and reverse circulation drilling.
Native Mineral Resources Managing Director, Blake Cannavo said: “The granting of EPM 27452 further solidifies our extensive ground position at the Palmerville Project in North Queensland and supports our plans to systematically screen the entire 1,820km² project area for large-scale copper and gold mineralised systems.”
“Early work at Leane’s has been encouraging and our team is eager to get back on the ground to ramp-up our work streams again when the wet season subsides in April. I look forward to providing regular updates on exploration work from across our portfolio over the coming weeks.”
Native Mineral’s Palmerville project is located in Far North Queensland, approximately 200 kilometres west-northwest of Cairns and covers more than 130km strike of the fertile Chillagoe mineral field.
The company’s current focus is the Leane’s copper discovery in the central Palmerville project area, where previous drilling has returned several interesting intercepts including 28 metres at 0.55 per cent copper and 11m at 0.32 per cent copper. Native Minerals exploration shows the mineralised system at Leane’s extending over more than 1,500m of strike and reaches widths of more than 200m.
Exploration at Leane’s is targeting a range of mineralisation styles, including copper-gold porphyries and associated skarns. The company has undertaken a detailed evaluation of the various significant discoveries in the region, including the Red Dome, Mungana and Red Cap deposits, concluding that Leane’s shows features reminiscent of several of these ore systems.
First-pass drilling by Native Minerals has returned intercepts of over 0.55 per cent copper, with the company’s exploration program currently on hold due to the conditions associated with the regions wet-season.
Management is now itching to get back on to the ground to finalise a quiver of deeper diamond drill holes that it commenced in late 2020, as it tests both near surface skarn style mineralisation across the discovery and begins probing for a potentially lucrative porphyry copper-gold system at depth.
Several ASX-listed explorers flourished during 2020 on the back of porphyry-related mineral discoveries, including Alkane Resources who nailed the Boda discovery in NSW which saw its company’s share price more than triple in the course of last year.
Native Minerals is continuing to grow its position in north Queensland and with drilling set to recommence in the coming weeks, the company looks to have a full dance card on its hands as it heads into the new field season.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
