True North hits 51m copper zone near Qld Cloncurry mine
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Murray Region
True North Copper has delivered a suite of broad, shallow copper and gold assay results from a recently completed exploration and resource expansion drilling program at the Great Australia Mine in North West Queensland.
The company says the results continue to show a strong mineralization continuum outside its existing resource footprint. The findings could support increased shallow resource growth and future flexibility in the company’s mine plan within the wider Cloncurry copper project.
The star of the reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign was a single hole targeting the Coppermine Creek area southwest of the main deposit. The drill bit captured an impressive 51-metre zone grading 0.37 per cent copper and 0.07 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 133m; this zone had a higher grade section of 30 metres, grading 0.52 per cent copper and 0.09 g/t gold.
The same hole also measured a 10-metre secondary shallow bonus slice containing 0.88 per cent copper and 0.15 grams/t gold from 78 metres.
‘We look forward to the upcoming Wallace North and South RC drilling results. Drilling targeted high-grade copper-gold intersections.’
True North Copper general manager Andrew Mooney
Adding further flavor to the program, another hole hit a 13-metre zone at 0.38 per cent copper and 0.08 g/t gold from 30 metres; this includes a remarkable one-metre section grading 2.01 per cent copper, 0.47 g/t gold and 411 parts per million cobalt from 35 metres.
A third hole nearby also struck a separate 7-metre zone containing 0.86 per cent copper and 0.12 grams/t gold from 105 metres.
The new mineralization, which is important to the company’s development plans, is located 75 m outside the existing resource boundary and occurs at shallow depths of approximately 25 m to 100 m below the surface.
While the campaign was driven by these broad hits, drilling and the Whip target in the Great Australian North also successfully intersected copper mineralization. Narrow structures were encountered in holes in the Brown Snake target, including 2 m of 0.52 percent copper from 72 m.
Meanwhile, a single deep hole at Whip hit 2 meters from 298 meters with a 0.26 percent copper grade. True North says these results, although narrow, are important because they define the boundaries of the mineralized system and will help tighten the company’s structural modeling.
True North Copper general manager Andrew Idle in question: ““These drilling results from Great Australia continue to support our wider strategy to build a robust and right-sized Cloncurry copper project with a reliable development path in the short term.”
However, these expectations are not explored alone. These represent the key building blocks of True North’s plan to create a major copper production hub by combining a number of regional-scale targets along the well-endowed Isa Inlier Mountain in north-west Queensland.
The company says the results create a reliable short-term cash flow opportunity at Cloncurry, which could help fund massive regional exploration programmes.
The jewel in this regional crown is the advanced Oxide Mountain project 200 kilometers to the northwest. Mount Oxide hosts the 15.03 million tonnes high-grade Vero resource grading 1.46 per cent copper and 10.59 g/t silver.
New geophysics at Oxide Mountain followed the parallel Aquila discovery over a 1.5-kilometer strike length rather than a single-deposit asset. Aquila has previously achieved stunning hits such as 145 meters at 0.75 percent copper, 59 meters at 1.77 percent copper, and a shallow 30 meters at 2.45 percent copper, underlining the massive scale the company is after.
With all drilling activities at Cloncurry now completed, True North is shifting its focus to technical work. The market can expect a gradual influx of RC analysis results from the Wallace North and South prospects throughout June and July; Diamond drilling analyses, metallurgical testing studies and geotechnical modeling will continue until September.
All exploration results will then be integrated into future resource developments, reserve definitions and a comprehensive pre-feasibility study scheduled to be delivered in the last quarter of this year.
With drilling rigs now being collected and moved off-site, True North is transitioning from field survey to reviewing technical data. If the upcoming wave of drilling results can match the solid widths and shallow depths provided by this opening round, the company’s development looks set for a busy second half of 2026.
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