Acquiring NSW Copper/Gold Project For £1.25 million
Xtract Resources Plc (AIM:XTR) has concluded a conditional Sale and Purchase Agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of ProsepectOre Ltd for a total consideration of £1.25 million.
ProspectOre currently owns a 100% interest in the Bushranger Copper-Gold Project, located in the Lachlan Fold Belt New South Wales, Australia’s world-class copper-gold province.
The Lachlan Fold Belt has recently undergone a resurgence in mineral exploration following the discovery of new, large scale, porphyry systems such as Alkane Resources Limited Boda discovery which add to the existing mineral endowment of the LFB due to mines such as Newcrest’s giant Cadia-Ridgeway operation.
The Bushranger Project hosts the Racecourse deposit, where a JORC (2012) compliant Inferred Resource has been estimated at 71Mt @ 0.44% Cu and 0.064g/t Au using a 0.3% Cu cut-off, with copper grades comparable to the major operating mines in the region.
The Racecourse Mineral Resource is interpreted to be a Copper-Gold Porphyry-Style deposit and the Directors believe to be one of the largest currently undeveloped porphyry deposits in the LFB.
The most recent drilling at Racecourse intersected substantially wider mineralisation – 159m @ 0.37% Cu, 0.21g/t Au (Hole ID BRD001), including 16m @ 0.73g/t Au – and with gold grades increasing with depth
The Western portions of the Bushranger Project are considered prospective for high-grade gold mineralisation
Executive Chairman, Colin Bird, said several geophysical and geochemical targets, with characteristics of porphyry style mineralisation, are ready for drill testing
“This acquisition represents entry into an asset with an inferred resource of over 350,000 tonnes of contained copper,” Mr Bird said.
“The deposit is open ended in both directions and the propensity for future discovery is good. I am particularly encouraged by the fact that the gold contribution increases with depth.
“The geological trend has produced a number of historical mines, closed and operating, and of late there have been announcement of new discoveries both porphyry copper and epithermal gold. “The asset significantly enhances our current copper portfolio and provides a solid platform to our emerging copper exploration activities. I look forward actively progressing the Bushranger project together with our Zambian exploration portfolio.”
