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THE big boys are circling copper prospects in the Mount Isa area through joint ventures as the world price flirts with hitting new highs.

The ongoing threat of industrial action cutting production at large mines in Canada, Chile and Asia has kept the price high, with copper rising for the ninth quarter in a row and 3.1 per cent in the past quarter.
The price of the metal used in wires and construction has quadrupled in the past three years, reaching a record high in May.

And analysts forecast explorers with strong defined resources and reserves will be ripe for the picking by the likes of global giants Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as well as local miners looking to diversify.

"It's not just Xstrata. They'll be a part of it because they're already there," Intersuisse analyst Peter Arden said. "There's the medium to larger size resource companies like Oxiana, Zinifex, Perilya and even Kagara (Zinc) that could be players."

Besides Swiss-Anglo miner Xstrata, which owns the Ernest Henry, Mount Isa and George Fisher operations in the Mount Isa/Cloncurry region, BHP Billiton and Perilya have financed exploration.

One of the most advanced projects at Roseby near Cloncurry is likely to be in production in 2008 and is a joint venture between Xstrata and Perth-based Universal Resources.

Xstrata also is involved in Haddington Resources' Jasper and Monakoff projects, while Rio Tinto's exploration arm is financing part of the Perth-based explorer's Wallace project.

Copper exploration is not limited to the northwest. Brisbane-based gold explorer Diatreme Resources announced last month its copper gold project at Clermont in Central Queensland had 30,000 tonnes of oxide copper metal.

But a geologist who has worked extensively in the area said there was no need for Xstrata to snap up any extra copper feed for its processor in the near future.

"What's the incentive for Xstrata to do that if they have enough to feed themselves," he said.

While the exact number of explorers looking for copper has grown in the past two years is not known, the past two weeks has seen a flurry of announcements to the Australian Stock Exchange about projects.