South Australian gold, copper and iron-ore miner Havilah Resources has discovered a thick copper zone at its Croziers site, about 400 km north-east of Adelaide.
The Croziers site, which is located between Havilah Resources’ Portia and Kalkaroo projects, supports the miner’s goal to accelerate plant development at Kalkaroo because of the short 10 km trucking distance that makes extraction between the two potential deposits efficient.
There are also potential extensions to the copper mineralisation as a result of the widespread copper anomalism in adjacent air-core drill holes, and associated magnetic anomalies, according to Havilah Resources.
Havilah Resources MD Dr Chris Giles says the company is planning to conduct more drill testing, with the combination of the nearby sites having the potential to produce up to 50 000 t of copper a year. “At Kalkaroo, we have about 1.1-million tons of copper and three-million ounces of gold,” he says.
In addition, the company plans to follow up with more drilling in due course, based on the 50-m-wide spacing of drill holes and the lack of previous reverse circulation (RC) drilling, thereby representing “plenty of room for a sizeable copper/tungsten deposit”, says Giles.
To date, Havilah Resources’ five shallow RC drill holes have successfully tracked the copper mineralised horizon over a 200 m downdipping cross section, and it potentially extends at least a further 270 m.
Meanwhile, the South Australian government’s $20-million Programme for Accelerated Exploration initiative has provided half the funding for the Croziers project and has set a statewide production goal of one-million tons of copper a year by 2030.
Giles notes that the company’s plan for a copper production plant, on the back of the recent discovery, could result in “significant interest” from China, where power grid improvement plans and vehicle sales are driving copper demand.