Copper Added Value to Come

Investors underestimate QLD copper potentialMeanwhile, investors have been tuned into Hammer Metals because of its project in the gold fertile Yandal region of Western Australia that is host to over 24 million ounces.The company’s share price is up 430 per cent to 5.3c since the market bottomed in March this year.Hammer is again on an upward trajectory after recent news that drilling at Target 1, within the North Orelia prospect at the Bronzewing South project, confirmed a shallow 2km-long gold trend.This rising tide has also been helped by news the company picked up more ground in the Yandal gold belt from Alloy Resources (ASX:AYR) in late July. The targets are on trend and near Northern Star’s (ASX:NST)Julius (335,000oz) and Ramone deposits.But Hammer also has 2,100sqkm of ground, complete with defined resources, in Mount Isa that is being taken care of by Japanese government-backed heavyweight Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).The reason it’s overlooked is because the primary commodity is copper, with gold as a by-product.Managing director Dan Thomas told * that’s because the investor focus appeared to be more directed at pure gold plays.“I think maybe what we’re seeing in our portfolio is we’re valued on our gold assets and our gold assets alone, and we don’t get that uplift from the other assets that we also have in our portfolio,” he said.“But the interesting point with those assets at the moment, strategically we’re quite cognisant of what our investors are looking for and we’re not spending our funds and advancing our Queensland portfolio. We’re actually utilising some joint ventures over there.“We’ve got JOGMEC spending $6m over five years to drill a bunch of holes for us. This year we’ve won $300,000 in government funding out of the Queensland state government to drill a couple of holes and to advance some of those exploration programs.“So I think as a package, we’re undervalued.”