PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Metals developer Altona Mining has reported a maiden resource of 21-million tonnes, grading 0.58% copper at its newly discovered Turkey Creek deposit, at the Cloncurry copper project, in Queensland.
The maiden resource at Turkey Creek has now increased the global mineral resource at the Cloncurry project to 286.8-million, grading 0.57% copper, 0.4 g/t gold for 1.65-million tonnes of contained copper and 0.4-million ounces of contained gold.
Altona noted on Wednesday that the Turkey Creek deposit would be included in the mining inventory for the Little Eva development, which would see ore being processed at a rate of seven-million tonnes a year to produce some 150 000 t/y of clean copper/gold concentrate, containing an average of 38 800 t/y of copper and 17 200 oz/y of gold.
The Little Eva project was expected to have an initial mine life of 11 years; however, the addition of the Turkey Creek deposit could add at least one to two years to the project life.
Meanwhile, to enable en estimation of an ore reserve at Turkey Creek, Altona would complete a limited programme of diamond drilling to collect samples for metallurgical testwork.