Castillo Resources (ASX: CCZ) has reported better than expected results for the maiden JORC Inferred Resource at unmined working sections of the historic Cangai Copper Mine in northern New South Wales.
Castillo, which acquired the Cangai Mine in mid-2017, said the Maiden JORC Resource at Cangai of 3.2Mt @ 3.35% Cu for approximatey 108,000 tonnes of contained copper is amongst the highest grade Copper JORC resources in Australia.
An excited Castillo Copper executive director Alan Armstrong said the better than expected result opens the door for the greater Jackaderry Project area in which Cangai is located.
“This is an outstanding start and arguably delivers CCZ one of the highest-grade copper resources in Australia,” Mr Armstrong stated.
“Moving forward, the Board plans to further prove up this initial resource by expanding across the Jackaderry Project, which includes an inaugural drilling program.
“Within the Cangai Copper Mine, 3D JORC modelling showed there are unmined high-grade supergene ore working sections, which are potentially direct shipping ore material that could be extended further.
“More significantly, given the resource is relatively shallow and located on the top of a hill, an open pit deposit could potentially be developed. The project has excellent infrastructure with sealed roads that link directly to Newcastle Port.”
He added that as Cangai only accounts for a small part of CCZ’s Jackaderry Project, the Board is optimistic incremental desktop work and a maiden drilling program will underpin further exploration and mineral resource size upside moving forward.
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He also suggested the company has a key competitive advantage and a clear point of difference with supergene ore, as it should be suitable for direct shipping ore, that can be easily transported to Newcastle port via excellent infrastructure already in place.
The Cangai Mine was discovered in 1901 and was in production between 1904-17, but only ore greater than 13% copper was extracted using manual techniques. A copper smelter was built on site with other supporting infrastructure and industries established, including a tramway and sawmill.
An initial desktop review on the Jackaderry Project by consultant geologist ROM Resources Pty Ltd confirmed it contained the historic Cangai Mine within its defined area.
Further research highlighted there was adequate legacy data to 3D model the mine and generate a JORC compliant Inferred Resource as a starting point for the broader Jackaderry Project.
CCZ is now looking at a number of near-term options for fast-tracking activities at Cangai. These include:
Targeting extensions to higher grade lenses as potential direct shipping ore material;
Focusing on proving up and extending the positions / boundaries of the defined supergene ore lodes within the resource using legacy data and an inaugural drilling program;
Undertaking a preliminary assessment of having an open pit mine, given the resource is relatively shallow and this is the most economic way to extract the ore;
Expediting re-assaying legacy core samples for cobalt given that builds in additional upside; and
Progressing desktop work identifying other mineralised anomalous zones within the Jackaderry Project to expand the overall resource size.