Alma Metals (ASX: ALM) has executed a contract with iDrilling Australia for the provision of core drilling services at Briggs, where over one million tonnes of contained copper has been defined in inferred resources.
The initial program will consist of a minimum 2,000m and iDrilling has agreed to accept a portion of its direct drilling invoiced costs (approximately $240,000) in ALM shares priced at 1.2c per share. Equipment mobilisation is underway, and drilling is expected to commence in June.
Drilling will initially focus on testing the southwest part of the large geochemical anomaly at the Briggs Central inferred resource. This drilling will infill the spacing to 80m over a significant portion of the Briggs Central resource, allowing for a revised mineral resource estimate to potentially increase the confidence to the indicated category.
This drilling is also aimed at testing for higher grades in the top 200m (from surface) as was demonstrated by the previous round of drilling on the northeast side of the Briggs Central resource.
Samples from the drilling will provide material for metallurgical test-work, which will contribute to the Scoping Study for Briggs.
Resource expansion drilling is also planned for the Southern Porphyry target.
Exploration at Briggs is being funded by Alma under an Earn-In Joint Venture (JV) agreement where Alma currently has a 30% JV interest and can earn up to a 70% interest from owner Canterbury Resources via a staged earn-in.
