west australian article

CONQUEST PICKS UP THE BATON IN COPPER STAKES
by Julie-Anne Sprague

The baton in the copper tag-team rally was handed to Balcatta-based Conquest mining yesterday, which surged 20% and extended its gains since handing down high-grade hits at its Queensland project a week ago to more than 120%.

Fuelling the fresh run was speculation Conquest would be forced to upgrade its Mt Carlton resource estimate based on the drilling results it released last Friday.

Conquest claimed the results were its 'most significant geological discovery to date', which included one hole intercepting 28 metres with 4350 grams per tonne of silver, 0.71 gpt gold and 5.9 percent copper.

The roller-coaster ride for shareholders in Cloncurry, Queensland, explorer CuDeco continued, withthe stock falling 11percent, or 42cents, to $3.37.

CuDeco's shares jumped 66.2% on Thursday, snapping a savage three-day share price plunge after fresh results from its Las Minerale deposit extended the strike zone by 50 metres.

CuDeco, formerly Australian Mining Investments, reached a peak of $10 earlier this on bullish resource figures for its Cloncurry project.

The company was later forced to revise down its estimate, slashing its stock to $2.55.

Shares in fellow explorer Kings Minerals were placed in a trading halt yesterday, following a 35% run on Thursday after it stuck high grade zones of copper, molybdenum, gold and uranium and its Kalman prospect south-west of Cloncurry. Industry sources said yesterday the company was planning a capital raising.

Conquest managing director John Terpu said that during the past 2 months Conquest had uncovered ore grade minerals in almost every hole drilled.

"I beleive there is substantial potential for expansion of this deposit," he said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Mr Terpu said he was waiting on additional information but expected to upgrade the Mt Calton resource early next week.

"We didn't have enough time (last week) to work out what the results meant to our global resource in the area", Mr Terpu said. "I think some of the analysts have joined the dots in terms of what the results mean to our resource"

DJ Carmicheal analyst Paul Adams said some of Conquest's Mt Carlton intersections were "Spectacular" and there "could well be a reasonable increase to the Silver Hill prospect".