EXPLORATION work is continuing on copper and gold deposits in the Burraga area that could be worth billions of dollars.
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BC Exploration Pty Ltd (BCE) holds two exploration licences which cover about 103 square kilometres in the Burraga area.
BCE’s parent company, Burraga Copper Limited (BCL) aims to list on the Australian Stock Exchange in mid-June.
BCL director and company secretary Jim Meehan said the exploration licences were mostly on private land, as well as a small area of Crown land.“We are currently engaged in an exploration program primarily focused on identifying a larger copper ore body that may be an extension to the Lloyd’s Copper Mine ore body, which was mined from the late 1880s to 1920,” Mr Meehan said.
“The Lloyd’s Copper Mine processed 470,000 tons of ore to produce 19,438 tons of copper.
“Our target is to identify a 75 to 125 million tonne copper bearing ore body in the Lloyd’s Copper Mine area.”
Mr Meehan said advances in technology had made exploration easier, and the current high copper and gold prices and forecasts for long-term stability in those prices made such exploration worthwhile.
“If we identify a substantial ore body capable of producing a high quality grade of copper, hypothetically the yield could be in the billions of dollars,” he said.
“We have undertaken two drilling programs in the last 12 months and drilled a total of 2965 metres over 25 holes.
“The results indicate strong support for the block model we have developed and it will be necessary to undertake further drilling over the next two years to define the resource on a measured basis.”
Mr Meehan said the company was also undertaking gold exploration to examine the possibility of a large, high-grade gold resource in a geological setting similar to that of the McPhillamy’s Gold deposit about 50 kilometres to the north.
The company held an information night at the Burraga Sport and Recreation Club in March attended by about 70 local residents.
“Our company policy is to engage positively with communities and landowners in our exploration areas to ensure there is a clear understanding of our aims and the exploration process which will be undertaken,” Mr Meehan said.
“The information night was, in our view, a great success.
“The main aim of the night was to ensure that the community was properly informed of our activities and the ongoing program to avoid the possibility of misinformation and to reduce community concerns.
“We hope to undertake regular community and landholder information sessions, in addition to individual contact with our stakeholders.”