AIC Mines hits copper and high-grade gold near its Eloise mine
By Industry Queensland
AIC Mines (ASX: A1M) has reported copper and high-grade gold results from two prospects close to its Eloise copper mine in North Queensland.
Both prospects sit within five kilometres of the operating mine and processing plant, south-east of Cloncurry.
At the Iris prospect, five kilometres north of the mine, drilling defined copper-gold mineralisation over a 1.5-kilometre strike length.
Hole IRDD002 returned 12 metres at 1.0 per cent copper and 0.3 grams a tonne gold from 227 metres.
That included two metres at 4.4 per cent copper and 1.5 grams gold, the company said.
A second hole, IRDD001, cut 7.7 metres at 0.7 per cent copper from 347 metres.
AIC said the intercepts were downhole lengths, with true widths estimated at about 60 to 70 per cent of those figures.
The company said Iris lay on the same structure as its Eloise and Jericho copper deposits and closely resembled Jericho, seven kilometres south.
It said the high-grade hits pointed to potential plunging shoots like those at Jericho, and that the zone remained open along strike and at depth.
The two holes were the first of a planned six at Iris, which AIC ranked among its highest-priority targets.
At Eloise South, two kilometres south of the mine, a single hole returned a very high-grade gold intercept.
Hole ESDD007 cut 3.2 metres at 92.5 grams a tonne gold from 446 metres, including 1.2 metres at 249 grams.
The gold sat in a stockwork of quartz-sulphide veins, and a downhole electromagnetic survey found a conductor matching its position.
AIC said the grades were among the highest encountered anywhere across its tenements, and it planned follow-up drilling.
The results were early exploration, and no mineral resource had been defined at either prospect.
Managing director Aaron Colleran said the results were “outstanding” and reflected “the exploration team’s growing understanding of the regional controls on copper and gold mineralisation across the Eloise district”.
AIC Mines owns the high-grade Eloise underground mine and is building a copper and gold portfolio in Australia.
