Following a consolidated review of historical and recent drill data,QMines Ltd (ASX:QML) has uncovered new copper and gold exploration potential at its Mt Chalmers Project in Central Queensland.
Sustainable copper-gold production
Qmines conducted the exploration update as part of its ambitions to build a large-scale, sustainable copper and gold production hub in Queensland.
The comprehensive reinterpretation, which incorporates grade contour mapping, has identified multiple high-grade zones across Mt Chalmers and adjacent prospects, including Woods Shaft, Botos and Mt Warminster.
These areas, previously underexplored, are now recognised as remaining open along strike and at depth, with several high-grade gold zones exceeding 10 grams per tonne (g/t) and copper zones above 10%.
The contour analysis also uncovered a range of underexplored gold targets along the 20-kilometre Cawarral Gold Trend, which backs QMines’ strategy of expanding its resource base around a future central processing facility at Mt Chalmers.
The Mt Chalmers resource currently amounts to 11.3 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.75% copper, 0.42 g/t gold, 0.22% zinc and 4.5 g/t silver, supported by a pre-feasibility study (PFS) released in April 2024.
The PFS pointed to a one-million-tonne per annum copper-gold operation with an Ore Reserve Estimate of 9.6 million tonnes.
The company is now moving on a revised PFS that will incorporate newly acquired projects at Develin Creek and Mt Mackenzie.
Scale development
The new mapping highlights promising high-grade exploration zones – at Mt Chalmers, parallel gold zones spaced 100 metres apart and copper pods with coincident gold mineralisation remain open to the north.
At Woods Shaft, high-grade gold mineralisation extends beyond the current 250-metre defined resource, while Botos and Mt Warminster show broad mineralised envelopes with multiple untested targets.
With more than 50 exploration targets generated across its regional database, QMines is positioning itself to unlock further value through discovery and scale development.
The company’s combined resources at Mt Chalmers and Develin Creek now stand at 15.5 Mt at 0.82% copper, 0.35 g/t gold, 0.47% zinc and 5 g/t silver.