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Australia
First Punt Hill hole intersects copper
ASSAY results from the first drill hole at
Monax Mining’s Punt Hill Copper-Gold Project
have confirmed mineralization is shallower
than previously thought. Best results from the
diamond drill hole are 9 metres from 4356
metres @ 0.12% copper.
The Punt Hill iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG)
project is about 130km north of Port Augusta
in South Australia. It’s on the eastern margin of
the Gawler Craton within the Olympic IOCG
province which hosts the Olympic Dam, Prominent
Hill and Carrapateena deposits.
The Punt Hill tenement contains numerous
coincident/semi-coincident gravity and magnetic
anomalies, which appear to be structurally
controlled along a regional north-west
fault. A geochronology study conducted as
part of the South Australian government’s
PACE program confirmed that the alteration
and mineralization at Punt Hill is part of the
same IOCG event on the Gawler Craton that
is responsible for the world-class Olympic
Dam deposit.
The initial hole was completed at 639.5 metres
within Donington Suite granite, with the
zone below the upper hematitic breccia comprised
of a series of sediments with two narrow
zones of intense silica alteration. Assay
results from these zones are expected soon.
Monax managing director Gary Ferris says,
“The 9 metre zone of elevated copper is
within a broader zone of 26.9 metres @ 756
ppm copper and provides encouragement
for further drill testing.” The six hole program
was given approval by the Kokatha
Uwankara claimants in August 2011 along
with a native title mining agreement.
Punt Hill is a joint venture with Chileanbased
copper miner Antofagasta, one of the
world’s top 10 copper producers. It’s Antofagasta’s
first Australian investment and it can
earn a 51% interest by committing US$4 million
over four years. Once Antofagasta has
obtained 51%, Monax has the ability to remain
at 49% by co-funding exploration or development
costs, or can elect to have its
interest diluted.
Antofagasta can earn a further 19% by expending
a further US$5 million in exploration
and development of the project tenements. If
a development decision is made, Antofagasta
will pay Monax a success fee of US$10 million.
It must spend a minimum of US$1.5 million on
the Punt Hill project within the first two years.
Drilling program under way at Lucknow deposit
A DETAILED infill and step out reverse circulation
drill program has commenced at Metallica
Minerals’ Lucknow deposit, which is part
of in its tri-metal Nornico project area in
northern Queensland. Results will allow the
company to announce an upgraded mineral
resource estimate by February 2012.
The 150-hole program is being conducted
across high-grade scandium mineralization at
the southern end of the project, northwest of
the city of Townsville. Drilling is being conducted
on an approximate 40 metre x 40
metre grid pattern to more fully define the highgrade
scandium resource boundaries and expand
the measured and indicated resources
for further detailed mine planning and preliminary
plant feed scheduling studies.
Metallica’s managing director Andrew
Gillies says the drilling campaign is an important
part of the company’s current spread of
feasibility and environmental studies, permit
applications, mineral resource studies and
detailed metallurgical work. He says Lucknow
will be the main long term source of scandium
ore and will be blended with nickel and
cobalt ores from the historical Greenvale mine
site for the project’s proposed High Pressure
Acid Leach (HPAL) processing plant.
“The Lucknow scandium resource stands
at 6.24 million tonnes at an average grade of
169 grams/tonne and at a 70 grams/tonne
cut off grade. Using a higher grade cut-off of
Drilling along 40 metre spaced drill lines at the southern end of Metallica’s Lucknow scandium deposit.
120 grams/tonne, a higher grade scandium
resource of 4.12 million tonnes at 206
grams/tonne is revealed, containing about
1200 tonnes of scandium oxide.”
Metallica is targeting aluminum alloy companies
and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developers
for expressions of interest in offtake
agreements for Nornico’s scandium production.
The current studies are based around a
HPAL process plant with an on-site power
and acid plant, annually treating 750,000
tonnes of combined nickel, cobalt and scandium
ore over a 20-year mine life.
Andrew Gillies says preliminary test work on
the Greenvale and Lucknow ores has indicated
high metal recovery and low to moderate
acid consumption. The initial annual
production target from 2015 at Nornico is
6000 tonnes of nickel and cobalt and 40
tonnes of scandium oxide. Scandium production
could easily be expanded to match
expected growth in scandium oxide demand
once a long-term reliable supply is presented
to aluminium and SOFC end users.
“High grade scandium resources will be selectively
mined for blending with higher grade
nickel and cobalt ores from our Greenvale
mine just 8km by road to the northwest. All
three metals will be recovered from the same
plant and produce nickel metal, cobalt sulphide
and scandium oxide.”
28 | ASIA Miner | January/February 2012