Hammer Metals (ASX:HMX) is aiming to deliver further resource upgrades within its Mount Isa Project in Queensland as it gears up to conduct an upcoming reverse circulation drilling program.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the sidelines of the Resources Rising Stars Conference in Queensland today (3 September), Managing Director Daniel Thomas says there are several copper, gold, and molybdenum zones of interest near the existing resource.
“We’re hopeful that those particular areas that we drill offer additional resource upgrades around the Kalman Project,” Thomas says.
Hammer Metals, which has a market capitalisation of $38.11 million, is expecting to begin drilling Kalman at the end of September or early October, while waiting for approvals and clearances.
“We expect the approvals and clearances to be done in the next month and then we expect to be onsite by the end of the month,” he tells this news service.
Thomas says the company is still working out how large the drilling program will be and, dependent on the results, whether follow-up drilling will be carried out.
“We’ve got at least half a zone prospects there to potentially drill, depending upon the success of each of those prospects, depending on how large that program is.”
On 26 August 2024, Hammer Metals announced it had conducted a soil sampling program, extended to the east and south of Kalman, which identified anomalous copper, gold, and molybdenum zones.
“The area we’re testing is 2km south of the previously drilled area and the soil anomaly there is an order of magnitude, better than what we have seen to the north,” Thomas explains.
Thomas adds that the company is “hopeful” that its upcoming drilling program will uncover “better results” than previously reported, which included 30m @ 1% copper.
The Kalman Project is a wholly owned asset of Hammer Metals and lies 6km east from the Overlander Project. It has a resource estimate of 39 million tonnes @ 1.07% copper-equivalent.
Thomas tells this news service that the project sits in the top five undeveloped projects around the globe.
“Kalman is 208,000 tonnes of copper, 343,000 ounces of gold, and 33,000 tonnes of molybdenum. So it is a nice mix of commodities.”
In 2023, molybdenum was added to Australia’s official critical minerals list. The mineral is used in steel alloys to increase strength, hardness, electrical conductivity, and resistance to corrosion and wear. Molybdenum is also considered a new energy metal as it is used in wind turbines.
Hammer Metals is a diversified mineral explorer focused on its assets in Western Australia and Queensland.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Hammer Metals
