EXPLORATION

Tottenham shows copper-gold potential as Mincor's second mining centre

The mid-tier miner says it has secured a series of significant copper-gold targets at its Tottenham project in the heart of New South Wales

Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Friday , 01 Apr 2011

NELSON, NEW ZEALAND  - 

Mincor Resources NL (ASX: MCR), which was the first company to acquire nickel mining assets in Kambalda in Western Aust ralia from a then tired WMC Resources Ltd - later taken over by BHP Billiton - now has a series of significant targets for copper-gold at Tottenham.

The well cashed-up miner, which only ever raised A$5 million (US$5.1 million) to get into the Kambalda nickel mining scene, said it has now secured "widespread anomalous copper-gold" in three EM targets at Tottenham and has five more still to drill.

At the Carolina prospect there was a best hit of 3.35 metres grading 3.42% copper and 0.79 grams/tonne gold about 200m north-east of a previous drill hit of 2m @ 11% Cu and 2.77 g/t gold.

At the Orange Plains prospect, latest drilling gave a best intercept of 3.21m @ 1.54% Cu and 0.47 g/t Au, while the Effie's Ace prospect has provided three holes that hit substantial zones of pyrite with copper and gold anomalism. Significant silver assays were evident at Orange Plains.

Mincor's managing director, David Moore, said the emerging interpretation was that Tottenham may have a cluster of volcanogenic massive sulphide bodies with economic target zones of high-grade massive chalcopyrite plus gold within the pyrite envelopes.

Moore, who won the Geoff Stokes Award at last year's Diggers & Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie for a sustained effort in running a profitable company, said the company controls a 30 kilometre strike length of a prospective rock unit within a tenement package covering 686 square km.

He said an aggressive drilling programme was continuing with Tottenham now having been upgraded to being a priority project in the portfolio of emerging prospects.

Copper may have been discovered in the Tottenham area as early as 1872, but was certainly being produced by 1880. Several small mines were worked through the 1880s and 1890s, but the production heyday was between about 1905 and 1919.

Copper production continued through to 1930 and to some small degree until as late as the 1970s. The current population of the town is just over 300, many of whom are descendants of the original pioneering copper miners of the 19th Century.

While ongoing and aggressive exploration at Mincor's mines at Kambalda has maintained longevity and provided new targets, the company last month announced it was suspending mining on the deep Otter-Juan mine because of ground conditions found in the base of the mine.

Otter-Juan was for more than a decade the flagship for WMC Resources and was operated by a private company until purchased by Mincor a few years ago. Mincor said Otter-Juan had provided a handsome return on the investment.