Hammer Metals (ASX: HMX) has reported the final results from a resource-upgrade drilling program at its Kalman project in north-west Queensland.

The strongest result came from hole K-162, which returned 165 metres at 2.24 per cent copper-equivalent from 175 metres, including 50 metres at 3.76 per cent.

That intercept carried 0.47 per cent copper, 0.31 grams a tonne gold, 0.32 per cent molybdenum and 6.4 grams rhenium, the company said.

The recovered copper-equivalent grade combined those metals using assumed prices and metallurgical recoveries, with the critical minerals molybdenum and rhenium adding much of the value.

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Hammer said the figures were downhole lengths, with the K-162 intercept estimated at about 52 metres true width.

Other holes returned 98 metres at 1.44 per cent copper-equivalent, 175 metres at 1.10 per cent and 142 metres at 0.71 per cent.

Individual samples reached grades as high as 4.15 per cent molybdenum and 107 grams rhenium a tonne, in hole K-165.

The eight-hole, 2,326-metre program was designed to upgrade Inferred resources to the higher-confidence Indicated category near the base of the planned pit.

Hammer said the drilling reinforced the scale, grade and continuity of Kalman’s copper-gold-molybdenum-rhenium system and would underpin future studies.

Kalman, which Hammer owns outright, held a 2023 resource of 39.2 million tonnes grading 1.27 per cent copper-equivalent, for about 500,000 tonnes of contained metal.

At the nearby Blackrock prospect, a single hole confirmed thick copper-gold mineralisation close to the Barkly Highway.

Hole HMBLRC001 returned 49 metres at 0.43 per cent copper and 0.14 grams gold from 159 metres.

Mt Isa specs

Hammer said drilling at Blackrock remained widely spaced, leaving considerable scope to define a significant copper-gold resource.

Managing director Daniel Thomas said the results were “an excellent close to this highly successful phase of drilling, materially upgrading previously reported intercepts and reinforcing the scale, grade and continuity of the copper-gold-molybdenum-rhenium system”.

He said Blackrock was “shaping as an exciting growth opportunity within the broader Mount Isa portfolio”, with grades and widths that pointed to “meaningful scale potential”.

Kalman and Blackrock sit among Hammer’s copper-gold projects in the Mount Isa region of north-west Queensland.

Hammer was the target of an A$80 million takeover bid from fellow north-west Queensland copper company Austral Resources (ASX: AR1).