QMines Ltd (ASX:QML) has begun fieldwork on 34 electromagnetic anomalies at its flagship Mt Chalmers Copper and Gold Project in Queensland, with drilling expected to begin shortly after high-priority targets are identified.
The company announced the initial results of a large airborne geophysical survey completed in February and covering 1,814 line-kilometres, that identified and ranked the anomalies for further investigation.
Of these, five were considered high-quality conductors with coincident soil anomalies, which have now been marked as Priority 1 targets.
VTEM™ survey area in yellow.
A new discovery potential
QMines managing director Andrew Sparke said: “The company has been compiling regional data on the Mt Chalmers project for the past 24 months.
“With the addition of high-quality electromagnetic and magnetic imagery, we now have a multi-layered dataset with five high-quality electromagnetic targets with supporting geochemistry and geology.
“The potential for a new discovery is now significantly improved and the company will commence drilling operations to test these targets over the coming weeks.”
Location of Mt Chalmers, tenure, geology and infrastructure.
Previous survey
A small part of the tenement area was flown by VTEM™ in 2007 and reprocessing by geophysical consultants Mitre Geophysics showed that the method was successful in detecting Mt Chalmers’ massive sulphide deposit.
The current survey, on the other hand, has provided a broader and much higher resolution coverage of a wider area than previously, including improved electromagnetic and induced polarisation (IP) signal, which allows new processing algorithms to be used on the data.
On the horizon
Next up for QMines include:
- Final metallurgical test-work results for the Mt Chalmers deposit;
- Delivery of the results of a recent carbon audit to meet the requirements of the company’s Climate Active program and to retain its zero-carbon certification;
- Complete the planned pre-feasibility study on the Mt Chalmers project, assessing the potential for a stand-alone mining operation; and
- IP inversion of the VTEM Max data for additional targets; and commence drilling of prospective regional targets.