Tartana Minerals is investigating options targeting primary ore at its Chillagoe region operation, which has been drawing on copper in solution in ponds to produce copper sulphate.

It has commissioned AED drilling to complete a 300m diamond core PQ hole to provide bulk samples from an historical open-pit area for Tomra ore sorting and standard copper flotation testwork.

The company said positive results would support the development of the Tartana open-pit copper resource, which currently stands at 45,000t of contained copper and remains open at depth.

“It is great news that we have been able to secure a rig to complete this important hole in a time when there is a high demand for drilling across the industry,” Tartana Minerals managing director Stephen Bartrop said.

“The results of the testwork will contribute to the mine plan for the Tartana open pit and the company is investigating options for treating the primary ore.

“Oxide and transition ore can be treated by the existing heap leach–solvent extraction crystallisation plant which is current producing copper sulphate pentahydrate and which is sold through our offtake partner, Kanins International.”

Drilling is scheduled to commence this week and will take about two weeks to complete.

Confirmation of earlier metallurgical test results will provide confidence for the company to carry out further drilling to increase the contained copper resource to greater than 100,000 tonnes.

Preliminary testwork in 2022 indicated a potential 100 per cent increase in copper grade using the Tomra X-ray transmission sorter and adding back the finer material after crushing to 30mm. The contained copper recovery was 76 per cent of the overall samples.