Arafura Resources Ltd (ASX:ARU) and its partner Thor Mining PLC (ASX:THR) have compiled a maiden resource for the historical Bonya Copper Mine deposit in the Northern Territory.
The resource estimate totals 230,000 tonnes grading 2.0% copper for 4,600 tonnes of copper, with trace levels of tungsten and molybdenum.
The small but moderately high-grade copper resource is a satellite to, and amenable for treatment in the proposed Molyhil process plant.
The deposit outcrops at surface and remains open at depth.
Most of the deposit is amenable to open cut extraction and it has the potential to add six months of profitable mine life to Molyhil.
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Thor’s executive chairman Mick Billing said: “This small but high-grade copper resource will provide valuable supplementary mill feed to the company’s nearby Molyhil process plant.
“Our primary incentive to acquire an interest in the Bonya exploration licence was, and still remains, the tungsten deposits in the licence area, therefore this “free” copper resource could be considered a bonus.
“The Molyhil processing plant design is amenable to the treatment of copper ores of this nature, without modification, and we expect this material will flow though the plant with no additional investment required, other than mining and haulage.”
First of potentially many of these deposits within trucking distance
“This the first of what we believe will be series of satellite tungsten and copper deposits within economic trucking distance of Molyhil.
“In addition to the work on the copper deposit at Bonya, an external review of the vanadium deposits, also on the project licence, is in progress, and we expect to provide investors with an update on this shortly.
“Nearby the Bonya copper deposit are several outcropping tungsten deposits which, upon completion of drill site access clearance, we plan to commence drilling, probably in February 2019.”