Perth-based Hammer Metals have lived up to their status as ‘explorer of the year’ with the release of an impressive maiden resource estimate at their Millennium project in Mt Isa just six months after buying the deposit for a peppercorn sum.
The ASX-listed junior announced this week a JORC-compliant maiden resource estimate of 3.1 million tonnes at 1.29% copper equivalent comprised of 0.14% cobalt, 0.35% copper and 0.12% gold. That’s equivalent to almost 40,000 tonnes of contained copper.
Hammer picked up Millennium in May from Chinese interests for just $83,000 in cash and shares, and immediately set about drilling 23 RC holes. This new data, combined with 17 holes drilled by the previous operator in 2013-14, led to this week’s maiden resource.
The deposit extends to the surface and is open at depth, with good potential to extend the mineralisation along strike to the north.
Millennium is located 32kms northwest of Cloncurry and 19kms northwest of the operating Rocklands copper-cobalt-gold mine.
The company holds a major tenement position in the Mt Isa region and was named Queensland explorer of the year in 2015 for its copper-cobalt Overlander discovery.
In a statement to the ASX, Hammer stated that Millennium was “similar in size and style to other deposits in the region that have been successfully mined by small-scale open pit techniques, which implies that the mineralisation may be economically extracted. Hammer has conducted high-level economic studies on similar deposits within the Mt Isa region and found positive results.”
Hammer CEO, Alex Hewlett, said “This maiden resource estimate lays the foundations for further resource definition drilling and mining studies into Millennium. There is also potential to expand the resource at depth and along strike to the north with further drilling. This has also been an exceptional timeframe for Hammer to have reached this stage as the project was only acquired in May of this year.”
The company will now expand on previous geological and metallurgical studies already completed on Millennium to shed more light on the project’s economic potential.
Hammer have made a habit of dropping pleasant surprises with resource estimates this year. The company recently upgraded Kalman South, 60kms south of Millennium, to 20 million tonnes at 1.8% copper equivalent, and is looking to boost that again on the back of a drilling program currently underway.
By Matt Birney
