Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER) has begun more than 1,500m of diamond drilling across two iron oxide copper-gold targets at its Canobie Copper Project in north-west Queensland.
The program will follow up copper-gold mineralisation at the Charcoal Bore Prospect and complete the first hole at the Alcala Prospect.
Exploration is fully funded under Strategic Energy’s farm-in and joint venture agreement with FMG Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortescue (ASX:FMG).
At Charcoal Bore, drilling in 2025 intersected basement from 588m in hole CNDD007 before entering altered metasedimentary rocks containing patchy copper and gold mineralisation.
Results included 8m @ 1,125 parts per million (ppm) copper (Cu) and 0.30 grams per tonne gold (Au) from 824m, alongside 4m @ 1,507ppm Cu and 0.32g/t Au from 774m.
The follow-up hole will test an offset density feature that projects closer to the surface than the magnetic anomaly targeted by CNDD007.
Managing Director David DeTata says the Queensland-focused exploration company will assess whether the feature is associated with broader or ‘higher-grade’ copper mineralisation.
“This year the offset density feature will be directly targeted in search of increasing widths and grades of copper mineralisation,” DeTata says.
At Alcala, an 800m angled hole will test coincident magnetic and gravity responses near the intersection of the regional Gidyea and Quamby shear zones.
Strategic Energy says it ranks Alcala as the strongest magnetic anomaly identified across Canobie, although the prospect has remained undrilled because of previous access constraints.
The Canobie program is expected to take three to four weeks, with assays anticipated approximately six weeks after drilling finishes.
The rig will then complete one hole at the Bulimba Gold Project under a joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining (TSE:5713), followed by two holes at Strategic Energy’s wholly owned Diamantina Copper-Gold Project.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Strategic Energy Resources, Daishsat Geodetic Surveyors
