Cyprium Metals intercepts copper, zinc, gold and nickel from drilling at Cue project
A highlight intercept from Cue was 44m at 1,167ppm copper and 3,525ppm zinc from surface, including 4m at 5,020ppm copper, 8,720ppm zinc and 0.12g/t gold from 8m.
In parallel with workstreams relating to the restart of its Nifty copper project, Cyprium Metals (ASX: CYM) has uncovered copper, zinc, gold and nickel from drilling at the Cue project earlier this year.
A reverse circulation drilling program at the project hit anomalous mineralisation at five of the seven targets that were tested at the Mount Eelya deposits.
All-up, 26 RC holes were drilled for 3,441m at Cue, which is within Western Australia’s Murchison region.
A highlight intercept was 44m at 1,167 parts per million copper and 3,525ppm zinc from surface, including 4m at 5,020ppm copper, 8,720ppm zinc and 0.12 grams per tonne gold from 8m.
Another hole hit 4m at 6,850ppm zinc from 24m, while another unearthed 12m at 1,380ppm nickel and 139ppm cobalt from 80m.
One hole intercepted 20m at 2,010ppm copper from 100m and ended in mineralisation. This comprised a higher-grade 4m interval averaging 3,750ppm copper and 0.15g/t gold from 116m to end of hole.
Cyprium managing director Barry Cahill said the company was continuing to work through the backlog of information on its other projects, while its pinning down the finance for restarting its Nifty copper mine.
“The Cue results are another part of building the business that we have.”
Mr Cahill added the drill results from Cue demonstrate the quality of the company’s portfolio.
“Our ambition to be a mid-sized copper producer depends on identifying and developing projects for Cyprium’s future production projects and these results clearly indicate the potential of Cue to meet our development criteria.”
Nifty copper asset
Nifty is located in WA’s north and is the sixth largest ranked copper development project in Australia by copper metal.
The asset has 940,000t in contained copper resources and first copper plate production is expected in the H1 FY2024.
Phase one mine life is estimated at 6.3 years and Nifty is anticipated to produce about 146,000t of copper plate a year.
This initial phase will involve restarting the open pit oxide mine and retreating the existing heap leach pads.
A phase two is predicted to extend the operational life beyond 20 years and will comprise mining the sulphide portion of the orebody.
The project has existing requisite infrastructure including power, accommodation, airstrip, groundwater resources, a 25,000tpa SX-EW plant that has been on care and maintenance since 2009 and a 2.8Mtpa sulphide concentrator that’s been on mothballed since November 2019.
“The Nifty copper project is in a state of readiness so that at the completion of the finance process, there is an effective and efficient transition from care and maintenance to full construction and then commissioning to production,” Mr Cahill said.