QMines has completed a maiden drilling program of 43 holes for 5034m at its Develin Creek project, confirming its potential to add mine life to the company’s flagship Mount Chalmers site.

The company said infill drilling had increased confidence in the continuity of copper, gold, silver and zinc mineralisation at the Scorpion deposit.

And step-out drilling had identified a potentially new mineral deposit style at the nearby Window copper prospect, it said.

The latest significant intersections reported from the Scorpion deposit include:

• 20m at 2.94 per cent copper, 0.42g/t gold, 20g/t silver and 1.4 per cent zinc from 46m; including 6m at 4.16 per cent copper from 57m.
• 30m at 1.58 per cent copper, 0.45g/t gold, 23g/t silver and 2.82 per cent zinc from 61m; including 5m at 3.63 per cent copper from 68m.
• 17m at 2.15 per cent copper, 0.42g/t gold, 20g/t silver and 2.18 per cent zinc from 102m; and
• 15m at 2.54 per cent copper, 0.45g/t gold, 18.3g/t silver and 1.54 per cent zinc from 83m; including 8m at 3.87 per cent copper from 86m.

“We have now completed an initial 5000m drilling program at Develin Creek,” QMines executive chairman Andrew Sparke said.

“The program consistently intersected wide high-grade intersections at the Scorpion and Window deposits. This is an excellent start to the new year, which will be followed up shortly by further drilling results and an updated mineral resource estimate at each of these deposits.”

The mineral resource estimate for Develin Creek stands at 3.2Mt at 1.05 per cent copper, 1.22 per cent zinc, 0.17g/t gold and 5.9g/t silver.

Results from the company’s maiden drilling program will be incorporated into an updated mineral resource estimate, expected shortly

QMines sees Mount Develin as adding scale to its Mount Chalmers project, about 90km to the east.

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.

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