Canterbury Resources is launching a 2000m-plus diamond core drilling program at the newly-acquired John Hill copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit near Monto.

John Hill is 80km south of the Briggs project being advanced by Canterbury in a joint venture with Alma Metals.

A pre-feasibility study at Briggs is evaluating potential development of a large-scale, long-life open-cut mining operation using conventional flotation processing – and Canterbury says it is aiming to define a similar opportunity at John Hill.

Image at top of page: Canterbury exploration manager Mike Erceg amid drill preparations on site.

With an established near-surface copper mineralisation footprint of about 1 km by 1km, the John Hill deposit is part of Canterbury’s Monto Project in Central Queensland.

It acquired the tenement package in a deal with Aeon Metals earlier this year.

Historical data supports a 2013 mineral resource estimate of 254Mt at 0.21 per cent copper, 100ppm molybdenum and 1.1g/t silver at John Hill.

“This is a very exciting time for Canterbury shareholders,” managing director Grant Craighead said.

“The John Hill deposit was an excellent discovery, but exploration efforts were prematurely terminated in early 2013, and the project has been dormant and unloved since then.

“Our knowledge and understanding of large-scale, low-grade copper-molybdenum systems in Central Queensland will enable us to rapidly advance the project up the value curve.”

The initial holes in the John Hill program will test a north-eastern drill target, where broad intervals of strong copper and molybdenum mineralisation have been recorded in nearby holes such as:

• 464.1m at 0.20 per cent copper, 170ppm molybdenum, 1.1g/t silver from 91m
• 171m at 0.31 per cent copper, 115ppm molybdenum, 1.5g/t silver from 85m
• 160m at 0.25 per cent copper, 204ppm molybdenum, 1.2g/t silver from 84m
• 244m at 0.22 per cent copper, 169ppm molybdenum, 1.2g/t silver from 84m

Canterbury Resources said eight drill holes had been designed to date, with necessary access tracks and drill pads already in place.