Teck Cominco finds 900m of 2% copper Email Print Normal font Large font April 25, 2007
Advertisement AdvertisementTECK Cominco has hit one of the most spectacular drill intersections in Australian mining history at its Carrapateena project in the South Australian outback.
In a quarterly report released yesterday, the Canadian miner revealed its Hole 50 intersected 905 metres of mineralisation with an average copper grade of 2.1 per cent and an average gold grade of 1 gram per tonne.
"I've never been involved in a hole better than this," said Teck's general manager of Asia-Pacific exploration, Wayne Spilsbury. "It might be the best drill hole Teck Cominco has drilled in the 100-year history of the company."
He said the mineralisation started at a depth of 487 metres and went down to a depth of 1.392 kilometres, meaning it would be an underground mine development. The deepest 94.4 metres of Hole 50 averaged 3.32 per cent copper and 0.6 gpt gold.
"It's getting down there," he said. "It's not deep by Olympic Dam standards … [but] it does show these kinds of systems have great depth."
Teck doesn't actually own the project, which was discovered after South Australian prospector Rudy Gomez's private company RMG Services sank an extremely lucky drill hole in 2005.
But the Canadian miner has the right to buy it from Mr Gomez at two-thirds of its market value as determined by an independent valuator, after making periodic cash payments totalling $32 million and completing 75,000 metres of drilling.
Mr Spilsbury declined to comment about Teck's expectations of a final price when asked if it could reach into the hundreds of millions.
But he said the company had spent $15 million on drilling so far and expected to complete the 75,000 metre requirement by the middle of the year.
Mr Spilsbury said the drill holes were at 100 metre spacings, which would at best make it an inferred resource - the lowest category of confidence.
At this point, Teck isn't prepared to say Carrapateena will definitely be a mine.
But Mr Spilsbury was willing to say this: "If it does become a mine, it will be one of the largest copper mines in Australia."
Shares in Monax Mining, which is drilling at a prospect 35 kilometres south of Carrapateena, soared 59 per cent on the news to close 43.5c higher at $1.175.
RMG Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
