Charters Towers north gets attention from explorers

The area north of Charters Towers is getting attention from both multi-national and junior miners. Superior Resources is in the throes of proving up a resource at the Bottletree prospect, targeting what’s believed to be a large porphyry copper system. There was reason to be excited in the area which was perennially overlooked by both the public and industry, Superior Resources managing director Peter Hwang said. “I explain it by the history of our exploration sector which has been quite focused on the Mount Isa district area, and pretty much overlooking this area, which is not far from Townsville,” he said. Greenvale Project, Bottletree prospect. “Our next moves are executing a deep drilling program on Bottletree … that's our main focus in the medium term. “We believe that we will be drilling more towards the central core of the porphyry system, so that's what's we're basically doing, trying to make a discovery this year.” History on its side The area was the subject of historical exploration permits, including those once owned by Anglo American, Mr Hwang said.“So you've seen over the last two years, in particular, quite a plethora of companies and tenements being applied for and granted surrounding us, mainly to the north, south and west,” he said. “The most recent notable one has been Rio Tinto applying for a quite a number of EPMs over a substantial area of ground. “There's not a lot of vacant ground there available now. Most of it's been taken up.” Related: Defence the new gold in Charters Towers It’s no mistake considering the Greenvale mine supported the Queensland Nickel operation north of Townsville for around 20 years. Another Greenvale miner, Australian Mines’ Sconi, (scandium, cobalt and nickel) project has forward sold six years’ production of nickel-cobalt hydroxide to Korean battery producer LG Energy Solution. It was proven form, Mr Hwang said.“Greenvale nickel mine's been out of operation for a few decades now. That was a laterite nickel deposit and we also have a lot of prospectivity in terms of laterite nickel,” he said. “However, we're not focused on laterite nickel, but we do have it there. There's been parties expressing interest in that respect.” Related: Australian Mines builds on Sconi strengths The Greenvale project in North Queensland. The company holds EPMs over around 1800 sq km in the Greenvale area. There were at least 11 prospects making up the Greenvale project including Wyandotte and Cockie Creek where the company was aiming to convert to JORC-compliant copper resources this year, Mr Hwang said. The process of moving through the exploration phase on their projects - which extend as far west as the Northern Territory border - had faced varying challenges, Mr Hwang said.“In terms of our other Tier 1 exploration projects, lead-zinc in North-West Queensland, that's Nicholson and Victor (projects), we'd like to see some revisit and some rethink about the environmental zonation restrictions that currently affect that area. “It used to be called Wild Rivers, and they are a significant impediment to discovery of the next Mount Isa.”The Nicholson project is on the northern Queensland-Northern Territory border and the Victor project is located around 100km south east. These include Mount Isa style copper lead zinc deposits and uranium in the Nicholson case. (Main photo at top of page: Drilling at the Bottletree prospect)

Charters Towers north gets attention from explorers

Industry Queensland

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