True North hits 51m copper zone near Qld Cloncurry mine

True North Copper has delivered a suite of broad, shallow copper and gold assay results from a recently completed exploration and resource extension drilling program at its Great Australia Mine in North-West Queensland.

The company says the results continue to demonstrate strong continuity of mineralisation outside the existing resource footprint. The findings may support incremental shallow resource growth and future flexibility in the mine plan within the company’s broader Cloncurry copper project.

The star of the reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign was a single hole, which targeted the Coppermine Creek prospect southwest of the main deposit. The drill bit intercepted an impressive 51-metre zone grading 0.37 per cent copper and 0.07 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 133m, featuring a higher-grade 30m section grading 0.52 per cent copper and 0.09g/t gold.

The same hole also clocked a secondary shallow bonus slice of 10 metres at 0.88 per cent copper and 0.15g/t gold from 78 metres.

Adding further flavour to the program, another hole struck a 13-metre zone at 0.38 per cent copper and 0.08g/t gold from 30 metres, including a notable one-metre section grading 2.01 per cent copper, 0.47g/t gold and 411 parts per million cobalt from 35 metres.

Nearby, a third hole also hit a discrete zone of 7m going at 0.86 per cent copper and 0.12g/t gold from 105 metres.

Importantly for the company’s development plans, the new mineralisation sits 75m outside the current resource boundary and occurs at shallow depths between about 25m and 100m below surface.

While the campaign was led by these wide hits, drilling at Great Australia North and the Whip target also successfully intersected copper mineralisation. Holes at the Brown Snake target encountered narrow structures, including 2m at 0.52 per cent copper from 72m.

Meanwhile, a single deep hole at Whip hit 2m grading 0.26 per cent copper from 298 metres. While narrow, the True North says these results are important since they define the edges of the mineralised system and will help tighten the company’s structural modelling.

True North Copper managing director Andrew Mooney said: “These drilling results from Great Australia continue to support our broader strategy of building a robust and right-sized Cloncurry copper project with a credible near-term development pathway.”

However, these prospects are not being explored in isolation. They represent key building blocks in True North’s plan to create a significant copper production hub by consolidating a set of district-scale targets across the well-endowed M