Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) has secured ground to the west and south of its Nyngan and Nevertire projects in the porphyry-rich Macquarie Arc in New South Wales.
The company has been granted three exploration licences covering 1,377km2, doubling its position in the Northern Junee-Narromine Belt and consolidating the immediate extensions of the Nyngan and Nevertire projects.
The new licences are known as Nyngan West, Nyngan South and Nevertire South.
CEO Sam Spring says the three new bolt-on projects have clear scale potential and strategic value, providing Kincora with a continuous north-south strike extent of over 100km in the Northern Junee-Narromine Belt.
“This new ground is adjacent to and on the interpreted extensions of the Nyngan and Nevertire projects where maiden partner-funded ground geophysical surveys are already ongoing with Fleet Space, and maiden drilling activities are shortly ramping up in partnership with and funded by AngloGold Ashanti at Nyngan,” he says.
In late May, Kincora inked a deal that gives AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) the right to earn up to an 80% stake in the Nyngan and Nevertire projects by spending up to $50 million.
AngloGold has an increasing attraction to the Macquarie Arc, which has an endowment of over 160 million gold equivalent ounces.
Prior to partnering with Kincora, the $11.98 billion major struck a $135 million partnership with Canada’s Inflection Resources (CSE:AUCU) to earn into five of the junior’s copper-gold projects in the region.
Others are following suit, with US$12.21 billion ($18.3 billion) miner Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) last month revealing it had entered into agreements with private explorer Gold & Copper Resources to earn up to an 80% stake in three separate areas of the Orange Gold Project in the Lachlan Fold Belt.
Gold & Copper Resources’ ground largely sits within a 50km radius of one of Australia’s largest porphyry mines, Newmont’s (NYSE:NEM) Cadia – which hosts reserves of 17 million ounces of gold and 3.6 million tonnes of copper.
This marks the fifth recent earn-in/joint venture agreement, supporting potentially over $300 million in exploration and development expenditure, in the district.
“Kincora’s strategy to create shareholder value is through obtaining the best ground, concluding commercial deals and making large scale copper-gold discoveries,” Spring says.
“Recently we have attracted four industry partners and unlocked up to $60 million of multi-year funding.”
The Northern Junee-Narromine Belt is one of the two major volcanic belts of the Macquarie Arc, part of the prolific Lachlan Fold Belt, where regional magnetics has proven to be effective in mapping the key belts and major intrusive complexes.
Of Kincora’s new ground, Nevertire South is the most advanced exploration-stage porphyry project within the Northern Junee-Narromine Belt, according to the junior explorer.
Prior drilling by other explorers over the southern section of the Nevertire Magmatic Complex, within the Nevertire South Project, has returned anomalous copper-gold mineralisation, favourable fertility defined by green rock analysis, geochemical zonation, and alteration suggestive of an outer porphyry system.
Green rock analysis is a porphyry targeting tool designed to determine the size of the geochemical footprint of deposits. This analyses the ‘green rocks’ like epidote and chlorite, which are hosts for alteration minerals.
Porphyry copper deposits are generally defined by consistent and extensive hydrothermal alteration zoning.
Additionally, age-dating confirms Nevertire South is a “highly prospective” phase-four Macquarie Arc intrusive complex, sitting at about 220m below surface, with broad and open zones of anomalous copper and gold mineralisation.
Kincora recently secured the results from three prior holes drilled at the Nevertire South Project and is planning to undertake relogging as talks with potential technical and funding partners progress.
Meanwhile, Kincora says regional geophysics strongly indicates that its Nyngan Project has the potential to host the “largest volcano-intrusive complex of the Macquarie Arc”, which is currently almost untested.
The total AngloGold Ashanti earn-in and Kincora wholly owned project portfolio now covers a strike length that is twice that of the rapidly emerging Vicuña porphyry district, where three projects owned by NGEx Resources have yielded four large-scale discoveries valued at over C$8.5 billion ($9.40 billion) following corporate deals involving BHP (ASX:BHP) and Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN).
Spring says Kincora and its partners will soon begin the first ever copper-gold exploration across the northern section of the Nyngan Project, which offers new “district-scale potential”.
“Kincora continues to build and advance our project pipeline, exploring further partnerships,” he says.
The upcoming drilling campaign will test up to eight large intrusive complex targets before the end of the year.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Kincora Copper
