Shares in Galileo Resources PLC (LON:GLR) jumped by nearly 14% to 1.05p in early trade on 30th March, after the company said it had completed the first phase of an ongoing work programme on its new Concordia copper project in Northern Cape, South Africa.
Galileo announced the completion of a deal to acquire a 51% interest in Concordia in January in return for a commitment to spend at least £500,000 working up the project.
According to the terms of that deal, the spend has to take place within 14 months of the January signing and Galileo has clearly wasted no time in cracking on, encouraged by the prospects of rich pickings in what has long been recognised as a prolific copper producing region.
Accordingly, the company has identified two specific prospects on Concordia as initial targets – Koeelkop and Wheal Julia – and set independent consultant Minxcon to work on them.
Minxcon has now remodelled the orebodies on both and reported back. Based on historic core log and assays from 64 holes on Koeellop and 40 holes on Wheal Julia, Galileo is now confident in saying that tonnes and grade are “significant” and “similar to large copper pits being mined globally.”
Minxcon estimates that Koeelkop contains 4.19 mln tonnes of ore grading 0.59% copper, while Wheal Julia contains 37.69 mln tonnes grading 0.55% copper, both at a 0.35% cut off grade.
At a 0.2% cut off that rises to 10.92 mln tonnes for Koeelkop and 62.55 mln tonnes at Wheal Julia.
Using the current spot price of around US$4,900, that equates to over a billion dollars’ worth of metal in the ground, in which context it’s no wonder Galileo’s shares are on the move.
“Concordia has the potential to progress to a large mining prospect and current work has demonstrated the existence of many potential opportunities within the concession not previously recognised,” said Galileo’s chairman Colin Bird, a veteran of at least one big copper success in the past.
“We intend to fast track the modelling to an initial mine concept and thereafter direct our work to confirming and expanding the model.”
Meanwhile, work is continuing on other prospects within the Concordia concessions, and on generating a more detailed understanding of the mineralisation patterns across the whole property.