Castillo Copper Ltd (LSE:CCZ, ASX:CCZ) has decided to throw its efforts into pursuing the battery mineral potential of the Broken Hill Alliance (BHA) Project in NSW following promising assay results.
A fresh geological report on the project’s East Zone underscores significant exploration potential for cobalt-copper-zinc and possibly lithium mineralisation.
Cobalt find
The results of recent exploration indicate that cobalt is present at levels ranging from 200 parts per million (ppm) up to 9,500ppm across 108 drill holes.
The mineralisation is proximal to the Himalaya Formation outcrop under shallow cover, and several of the anomalous zones are close to shear zones that trend northeast across the tenure.
The region is well-known for its cobalt potential, as demonstrated by Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd’s JORC 2012-compliant ore reserves of 118 million tonnes at 687ppm cobalt for 81,100 tonnes of contained metal.
Acquisition plans dropped
On the basis of this positive data, Castillo Copper has decided to abandon acquisition activities involving the Litchfield and Picasso lithium assets and focus its energies on BHA, a 100%-owned asset it picked up from Wyloo Metals in 2020.
The company’s geology team are now working on a suitable geological model and estimating a mineral resource to the standard of the JORC 2012 code.
Global supply hub
Castillo has been motivated in part by a state government strategy focused on building a viable downstream industry for processing critical minerals (including cobalt-copper-REEs) and establishing a global supply hub in NSW’s Central West region.
“This is a timely discovery that significantly enhances the Project’s exploration potential for battery metals, especially as it coincides with the NSW government launching its critical minerals and high-tech metals strategy," Castillo managing director Simon Paull said.
“As a result, with the cobalt price now over US$70,000/t on the London Metal Exchange, work on modelling a JORC-compliant mineral resource is now underway.”
The company now plans to prioritise the modelling of a JORC 2012-compliant resource at the Big One Deposit and will further develop the graphite base metal discovery at the Arya Prospect.