The State Government Collaborative Exploration Initiative is paying dividends on another mining prospect.

It follows the release of geophysical survey results by True North Copper which reveal prospective targets at the Mount Gordon and Aquila prospects on the Mount Oxide project, 140km north of Mount Isa in North-West Queensland.

The survey included three MIMDAS Induced Polarisation (IP) and Magnetotelluric (MT) lines.

Main image: True North Copper’s Mt Oxide project 140kms north of Mount Isa

This revealed multiple unexplored geophysical targets with similar signatures to the Vero Cu-Ag-Co resource at Mount Oxide, the company told the ASX.

Also identified are three new shallow and untested anomalies at Mount Gordon, similar to the Vero resource.

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They were partially coincident with historic drilling intersections, including 1.9m at 3.0 per cent copper from 106m downhole in ECM1, the company said.

Results at the Aquila prospect show chargeability highs are coincident with mapped iron oxide-rich breccias which returned up to 0.94 per cent copper in rock chip samples.

The geophysical survey at Mount Oxide revealed several new, highly prospective targets that shared similar characteristics with their high-grade Vero deposit, True North Copper managing director Bevan Jones said.

“The results of this survey, which has been supported by a Queensland Government CEI Grant, have uncovered significant anomalies at both the historic Mount Gordon copper mine and Aquila prospect,” Mr Jones said. 

“These results are in addition to the positive results at Vero and Camp Gossans announced in August. With these exciting developments, we’re optimistic about expanding our exploration footprint and identifying additional drill targets. 

“The continued integration of geophysics, mapping, and sampling will be key to advancing our future exploration programs at Mount Oxide, including the design of the next phase of drilling.”

The geophysical survey is nearing completion with processing pending on Ivena North and an additional line being undertaken at Camp Gossans to test the strike extent of the anomaly there and the new Black Marlin target, the company said.

Heritage clearance and access planning for drilling has commenced.

The historic Mt Gordon Copper Mine is located 5.5km north-east of the Vero Cu-Co-Ag resource and is 0.5km north of the Aquila Prospect area.

Historic workings at Mt Gordon include a 40m deep shaft with short drives extracting 102.6t @
24.2% Cu pre-1958, and a further 734.6t @ 9.1% Cu post 19586.

Two drillholes were completed at Mt Gordon in the 1980s, testing for extensions of the mineralisation in the historic workings. Results include ECM1 1.9m @ 3.0% Cu from 106m downhole and AMG1 0.9m @ 2.42% Cu from 305.5m downhole 1.