QMines gets 10,000m drill program underway

QMines has kicked off a 10,000m drilling program with two rigs at its Develin Creek and Mount Chalmers copper and gold projects in Central Queensland. Coming off the back of a $6 million capital raise, it will include diamond and reverse circulation drilling. While two holes are planned for Mount Chalmers, the majority of the work will be focused on Develin Creek. Priorities include establishing extensions to the high-grade Scorpion and Window deposits and building confidence in the Sulphide City deposit. "This program will lead to a resource update for the Scorpion and Window deposits which is expected shortly," QMines executive chairman Andrew Sparke said. "The new 8000m RC drilling program is designed to grow and improve the mineral resource at the Sulphide City deposit. Diamond drilling underway at Mount Chalmers. "An additional 2000m diamond drilling program has been designed to extend the Develin Creek resources and for further metallurgical test work. "We expect both RC and diamond drilling rigs to run concurrently, with the RC rig expected to commence operations in April 2025. Drilling results will be delivered as they come to hand.” This program follows the company's maiden 5000m drilling program at Develin Creek, completed in December 2024. Results included an intersection of 114m at 1.64 per cent copper near surface at the Scorpion deposit. The Develin Creek copper project is located about 90km north-west of Rockhampton. The high-grade Scorpion, Window and Sulphide City deposits within that project collectively have a mineral resource estimate of 3.2Mt at 1.05 per cent copper, 1.22 per cent zinc, 0.17g/t gold and 5.9g/t silver. QMines sees Mount Develin as adding scale to its Mount Chalmers project. A prefeasibility study showed Mount Chalmers, 17km north-east of Rockhampton, to be a technically and financially robust copper project able to support a stand-alone 1Mtpa process plant and mine life of more than 10 years. It would take a capital outlay of just over $190 million to bring the Central Queensland operation online, with the reward being an estimated life-of-mine revenue of $1.64 billion, the study results showed. Mount Chalmers now has an ore reserve estimate of 9.6Mt at 0.65 per cent copper, 0.48g/t gold, 0.27 per cent zinc, 5.2g/t silver and 4.3 per cent pyrite in the proved and probable categories (JORC 2012).

QMines gets 10,000m drill program underway

Industry Queensland

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