Sydney, Nov 9, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Copper producer Austral Resources Australia Limited (
ASX:AR1) is pleased to announce its planned development and exploration program for the remainder of calendar 2022 (CY22) and the 1 st half of calendar 2023 (H1CY23).
Key highlights:
- Drilling of prioritised phase 1 Anthill 2.0 copper oxide exploration targets within the existing ML are currently in progress.
- Drilling of phase 1 McLeod Hill and Lady Annie copper oxide exploration targets scheduled to be completed in 2022, both targets on existing ML's.
- Copper Oxide Targets in 2023 include the Drifter trend where recent surface rock chip samples assayed at 16.05% Cu, highly prospective known targets adjacent to the Anthill open pit mine and targets within the Glencore JV.
- Copper Sulphide targets in 2023 include Lady Colleen where Austral continues to define a highgrade zone, Enterprise where Austral reported a Maiden Mineral Resource, Flying Horse, Lady Annie, Investigator and Neptune.
- Flying Horse and Lady Annie have existing Mineral Resource estimates. In 2023 Austral will explore for additional high-grade oxide and sulphide copper mineralisation, including lower-tonnage higher-grade zones within the sulphide mineralisation.
- Austral continues leveraging off the material existing legacy datasets to accelerate the exploration to discovery pipeline.
- $10m budgeted for exploration over 2023 and JV discussion continue with multiple parties.
Austral's Managing Director and CEO, Dan Jauncey said: "We are thrilled we are now on track with our Anthill copper production with Mt Kelly processing facility hitting 1,000 tonne per month during this quarter. This enables our team to focus on the longer-term future of Austral, and extending our revenue potential through exploration. Our team continue to set about defining additional copper oxide and sulphide resources that both extend and increase feed to the Mt Kelly plant and extend Austral's mine life. This discovery process has seen a range of exploration activities progress over 2022. This work will hopefully deliver some further outstanding exploration results over coming months that build on the strong assay metrics recently announced from our Lady Colleen deposit.
Looking to calendar 2023, the next stages of our ongoing exploration program are already taking shape. A key area of focus in next year's copper oxide exploration program will be identified targets within 50km of our Mt Kelly SE-EW plant at Mt Kelly.
We are very proud of our development journey, for such a small team to have achieved so many milestones is very pleasing. As the Company's Mt Kelly copper cathode production facility continues to build scale, it will provide a revenue base that helps us fund our ongoing exploration efforts. While this ramp up phase is occurring, we continue to explore ways to realise the prospectivity inherent across our tenure. We look forward to updating the market on results flowing from these initiatives over the months ahead."
About Austral Resources Australia Ltd
Austral Resources Australia Ltd (ASX:AR1) is a copper cathode producer operating in the Mt Isa region, Queensland, Australia. Its Mt Kelly copper oxide heap leach and solvent extraction/electrowinning (SXEW) plant has a nameplate capacity of 30,000tpa of copper cathode. Austral is developing its Anthill oxide copper mine which has an Ore Reserve of 5.06Mt at 0.94% Cu. The Company expects to produce 40,000t of copper cathode over a four-year period from mid-2022.
Austral owns a significant copper inventory with a JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 60Mt at 0.7% Cu and 1,940km2 of highly prospective exploration tenure in the heart of the Mt Isa district, a world class copper and base metals province. The Company is implementing an intensive exploration and development programme designed to extend the life of mine and increase then review options to commercialise its copper resources.
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