Alma Metals (ASX:ALM) joint venture partner Canterbury Resources (ASX:CBY) says results from ongoing drilling at the Briggs Copper Project in Queensland represent “opportunities to maximise copper production”.
Holes 24BRD0027 and 24BRD0028 have encountered broad intervals of copper mineralisation, including intervals comparable to hole 24BRD0026, which recorded 276m @ 0.45% copper.
Some of the latest assay results include an average of 0.22% copper and 29 parts per million (ppm) molybdenum and 0.70% copper and 19ppm molybdenum.
Canterbury Managing Director Grant Craighead says the company is “excited” by the progress and results achieved to date.
“We are successfully delineating broad zones of shallow, high-grade mineralisation that represents opportunities to maximise copper production and minimise costs during the early years of a conceptual mining operation,” he says.
Assays for the next batch of two holes are expected in three to four weeks, with drilling continuing until towards the end of the December quarter.
Having restarted in June, the program is testing and infill drilling the southwest margins of the large geochemical anomaly at the Briggs Central inferred resource. The program is also testing for higher grades in the top 200m, which was shown in the 2023 drilling program.
Canterbury Resources says samples from the drilling program will also provide material for metallurgical testwork, which will contribute to the Scoping Study for Briggs.
The Briggs Project comprises six tenements in central Queensland and has an inferred resource of 415 million tonnes at 0.25% copper and 31ppm molybdenum.
Under the joint venture, Alma Metals is funding the project as part of an earn-in joint venture and is in stage two of the agreement. Alma Metals can reach up to a 51% interest in the project by funding $3 million by 30 June 2026.
Canterbury Resources is a resources company focused on exploring the potential of tier one copper-gold projects in the southwest Pacific.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Canterbury Resources
