Castillo Copper Limited (ASX: CCZ) believes it has identified a number of highly prospective priority targets after undertaking a comprehensive review of historic data for the Big One Deposit and Boomerang Mine in Queensland.
However, the company there is a vital need for more exploration work to be undertaken at site within Mt Oxide pillar of Mt Isa’s copper-belt, to define their potential scale and size of any underlying orebodies.
Castillo Copper’s Managing Director Simon Paull said the results of the review is a game changing development for this important pillar that materially enhances the exploration upside, coinciding with a resurgence of interest in the region by large blue-chip groups including Rio Tinto.
Locating this historic drilling, assay and production data for the Big One Deposit and Boomerang Mine within the 961sq. km Mt Oxide pillar, which is in the heart of the Mt Isa copper-belt is a tremendous windfall,” Mr Paull said.
“As a starting point, our geology team now have ample data points to start formulating a drilling campaign to re-test and potentially expand the known ore body at the Big One Deposit then focus on Boomerang Mine and Arya Prospect. This would be a great start to developing the high-priority Mt Oxide pillar and creating incremental value for shareholders.”
According to Mr Paull, further forensic work on the Mt Oxide pillar resulted in the former holder of the Big One Deposit mining tenure (ML5481) being contacted and, subsequently, providing substantial historic information about WME and other groups’ exploration activities undertaken during the life of the tenure.
In 1993, WME completed a RC drilling campaign at the Big One Deposit, comprising 27 drill-holes (aggregating 1,673 m2) which produced a standout assayed intercept of 3m @ 12.25% Cu from 42m incl: 2m @ 17.87% Cu from 43m and 1m @ 28.40% Cu from 44m
Focus on putting in place a timeline to conduct a comprehensive site visit to the Big One Deposit, Boomerang Mine and Arya Prospect as all three reinforce the importance of developing the top priority Mt Oxide pillar.
CCZ’s London based Director Ged Hall said the copper grades found at the Big One Deposit are excellent and clearly highlight the potential upside apparent from developing the Mt Oxide pillar.
“More significantly, the timing is near text-book as we work towards securing regulatory approval to dual list CCZ on the Standard Board of the London Stock Exchange.”
Meanwhile, a review of legacy mineral production records at the Boomerang Mine stretched from 1944-74 verified that circa 4,211.2t of oxide ore had been mined grading a significant ~6% Cu, producing 250.9t copper metal.
Mr Paull said that finding this historic data is an encouraging start, however, fieldwork is now imperative to determine the optimal next steps in developing a staged exploration campaign for investigating the Boomerang Mine.
