Carnaby Resources has jagged 3m at 3.2 per cent copper and 2.2 grams per tonne gold – including 1m at 7.6 per cent copper and 3.8g/t gold – at the Greater Duchess joint venture (JV) it shares with Latitude 66 near Mt Isa in Queensland.
The JV has today reported that at Lady Fanny - immediately to the north of its Nil Desperandum deposit – results from four reverse-circulation (RC) holes have come back with solid shows of high-grade copper and gold. While the final hole drilled includes the headline hit, the first hole pulled 20m at 0.6 per cent copper and 0.1g/t gold from surface.
The JV believes the results underline the prospectivity of Lady Fanny to host much more than its current resource of 46,500 tonnes of copper equivalent. It forms part of Latitude’s 17.5 per cent free-carried exposure at the project that also includes the 60,000-tonne copper equivalent Nil Desperandum deposit.
Meanwhile, at the Deejay and Jude prospects that sit 3km north-east of Carnaby’s 175,000-tonne copper equivalent Mount Hope deposit, a single-pass RC hole intersected a broad zone of secondary copper mineralisation with some primary chalcopyrite.
The result, regarded by the JV as highly-encouraging, has now prompted a downhole electromagnetic survey while it awaits results of assays that showed up 21m at 0.6 per cent copper from 26m from initial portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) readings.
Latitude 66 managing director Grant Coyle said: “Latitude 66 is excited to see the continued positive exploration results from our Greater Duchess JV and the on-going progress of the prefeasibility study. We are focused on unlocking further value from our Australian asset portfolio while continuing our exploration and project development efforts on our flagship KSB project. We believe this strategy will create value for our shareholders and we’re excited for the significant developments across our portfolio in the next six months.”
Carnaby is planning to conduct an extensive airborne electromagnetic survey mid-next month, targeting the broader Nil Desperandum area in a bid to identify further exploration opportunities.
Sitting 70km south of Mt Isa, the Greater Duchess project is surrounded by world-class infrastructure including rail, road, a gas pipeline and a highly-experienced and mine-ready workforce with abundant contract mining and haulage operators.
The jointly-owned grounds that partly make up the Greater Duchess project area, are currently subject to ongoing prefeasibility studies by Carnaby. The study, due in the next few months, will be an important part of the future plans to develop the entire project into a free-standing mining operation, which currently hosts a global resource of 281,000 tonnes of copper equivalent.
Together with Latitude’s ambitious strategy to expand and develop its highly-promising 600,000-ounce Kuusamo Schist Belt gold project in northern Finland, the company has plenty of irons in the fire and investors are likely to be keeping a close eye on progress at both developments in the next few months.
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By James Pearson
