Drilling to Increase Mine Life Underway at Leichhardt Copper Project
Key Points:
- Diamond drilling has commenced at the Leichhardt Copper Project beneath the Mt Watson open pit;
- The diamond drilling is designed to assess the opportunity of treating the underlying transition ore through the existing copper cathode plant, thereby potentially adding mine life;
- Sonic drill testingof the Mt Cuthbert leach pads has been completed with copper recovery test work underway to assess the residual recoverable copper inventory, and consequently whether it is economic to recommence irrigating the heaps; and
- In the past 12 months, the spotprice of copper has risen approximately 21%.
Australian domiciled resources and investment company, Cape Lambert Resources Limited (“Cape Lambert” or the “Company”) (ASX: CFE) is pleased to announce diamond drilling has commenced at its wholly owned Leichhardt copper project located approximately 100km north northeast of Mount Isa, Queensland (“Leichhardt Project” or “Project”) (refer Figure 1 of the ASX announcement).
The objective of the diamond drilling is to assess the opportunity of treating the underlying transition ore at the Mt Watson open pit (refer Figure 2 of the ASX announcement) through the existing copper cathode plant.
In the past 12 months, the spot price of copper has risen approximately 21% (refer Figure 3 of the ASX announcement).
CapeLambertacquired the Leichhardt Project in August 2010 from Matrix Metals Limited (Receivers and Managers Appointed) (In Liquidation) (“Matrix”). The Leichhardt Project includes a heap leach, solvent extraction and electrowinning facility with an installed capacity of 9,000tpa of copper cathode (collectively “Copper Cathode Plant”). Furthermore, the Leichhardt Project also comprises the suspended Mt Watson open pit located approximately 30km north of the Copper Cathode Plant and a package of 43 granted tenements (covering approximately 850km2) and 11 exploration permit applications (covering 496km2). The Leichhardt Project is currently on care and maintenance.
Prior to being placed into Administration in November 2008, Matrix partly exploited the oxide mineralisation at Mt Watson as feed to the Copper Cathode Plant. Although, initial metallurgical test work on the underlying transitional mineralisation to determine its heap leach recovery showed it could potentially be treated through the Copper Cathode Plant, it was incomplete at the time Matrix was placed into Administration. Consequently, and in addition to the remaining oxide mineralisation at Mt Watson, Cape Lambert considers that there is an opportunity to define an additional quantity of heap leach recoverable copper from this transition zone, thereby providing additional feed to the Copper Cathode Plant and mine life.
To determine the metallurgical characteristics of the transitional material, the current diamond drilling program is large diameter PQ core (85mm) designed to provide sufficient material for detailed metallurgical test work, including column leach tests. The drilling has also been designed to allow an upgrade in resource classification and the determination of an Ore Reserve from the transitional ore zone at Mt Watson.
The current Mt Watson Mineral Resource above a 0.6% copper cut-off reported in accordance with JORC Code (2004) guidelines is summarised in the table contained in the ASX announcement.
In addition, Cape Lambert has completed drill testing the existing nine heap leach pads at Mt Cuthbert (refer Figure 4 of the ASX announcement). A total of 261 sonic drill holes were completed for 2,736m. The drilling was carried out to provide undisturbed leach pad samples, which have been submitted for metallurgical test work to determine the residual recoverable copper inventory within the leach pads and consequently whether it is economic to recommence irrigating the heaps.
Cape Lambert Executive Chairman, Mr Tony Sage said, “the transition mineralisation at Mt Watson provides an excellent opportunity to define a significant amount of heap leach recoverable copper. This combined with the existing plant and the copper still sitting in the leach pads could potentially allow for a rapid restart of operations at the Leichhardt Project, at this time of record spot copper prices.”
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