- Strategic location in the best endowed copper belt in Australia, the Olympic Copper-Gold Province ( Figure 1). This belt is over 500 km long and contains about 75% of the known copper resources in Australia. Olympic Dam is the fourth largest copper and largest uranium deposit in the world, containing some 42% of known global uranium resources. Two discoveries since 2000 at Prominent Hill, approximately 100 kms north west of Olympic Dam and Carrapateena, 20 kms east of Gunson’s Chianti Prospect at Mount Gunson, have heightened exploration interest for large deposits in the basement rocks of this belt.
- The Project straddles about 10% of the Olympic Copper-Gold belt as four contiguous exploration licences covering about 1,320 square km.
- Exploration for large copper-gold deposits in the basement at Mount Gunson (Figure 2) is being funded by a subsidiary of Xstrata Copper, which has the right to earn a 75% interest in the Project by spending $A10 million by mid 2013. To date, $A3.35 million has been spent and the current focus is on drilling at Emmie Bluff Prospect (Figure 3).
- Copper mineralisation of Central African Copper Belt style is also widespread in the overlying cover rocks (Figure 2, eg. Mount Gunson mine) and two areas covering the shallow MG14 and Windabout deposits have been excised from the Xstrata Copper farm-in (Figure 3).
- In October, 2009 the Company announced the results of a Pre-Feasibility Study on the shallowest of the 2 resources : the MG14 deposit, at 25m depth. Open pit mining of this 1.1 million tonne deposit averaging 1.7% copper over 2 years pays back the development cost at a copper price of $US2.70 per pound and an exchange rate of 86 US cents to $A1. A 15 month Bankable Feasibility Study on a sequential development of the MG14 and much larger Windabout deposit nearby commenced in late 2009.
Associated Documents
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
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