Kincora Copper hits mineralization at Trundle in Australia

Kincora Copper (TSXV: KCC) has reported assay results from the first drill hole at its Trundle copper-gold project in Australia.

Drill hole TRDD001 intersected several intervals of gold and copper mineralization from skarn zones within the southern portion of the property, which is situated in the Macquarie Arc of the Lachlan Fold belt in central-west New South Wales. Highlights include 51 metres grading 1.17 grams gold per tonne and 0.54% copper starting from 39 metres downhole.

The hole also intersected 21 metres grading 1.94 grams gold and 1.18% copper from 58 metres, including a high-grade core of 8 metres grading 3.07 grams gold and 1.95% copper, and 2 metres grading 4.32 grams gold and 2.43% copper from 76 metres downhole.

“We’re excited by the results from the first hole as it’s returned some pretty good gold and copper grades in oxidised skarn,” John Holliday, chair of the technical committee said in a telephone interview. “The skarn is really significant because all of the really good porphyry deposits in the Macquarie Arc have skarn adjacent or near to them, so it’s very indicative of a favourable environment for further exploration.”

Drilling from deeper down TRDD001, he added, intersected 18 metres grading 0.53 gram gold and 0.05% copper from 284 metres, including 3 metres grading 1.80 grams gold and 0.18%. The hole also intersected the targeted adjacent porphyry intrusion system, returning 21 metres grading 0.25 gram gold and 0.03% from 66 metres downhole.

Core samples from drill hole TRDD001 at the Trundle Park target. Photo Credit: Kincora Copper.

The hole is part of a six-hole, 3,800-metre drill campaign with assay results from the second drill hole, TRDD002, at the Mordialloc target, located about 8.5 km north of TRDD001, expected in the next couple of weeks, the company reports.

“The second hole was encouraging as it provided very positive visual indications that there is increased veining towards the bottom of the hole,” Holiday said.

Both holes, he noted, “support the skarn being a standalone target at depth and the high-grade zones within broader moderate mineralized zones illustrate significant magmatic fluids associated with the adjacent porphyry intrusion system, which is a much larger target.”

The first two drill holes significantly expanded the scale and prospectivity of the Mordialloc porphyry and Trundle Park skarn-porphyry targets, the company says, and are interpreted to lie within the same mineralized complex as China Molybdenum’s Northparkes copper-gold project, Australia’s second-largest porphyry mine, 30 km east of Trundle.

Core sample from srill hole TRDD002 at the Trundle Park target showing Potassic altered monzonite porphyry with chalcopyrite-chlorite clots. Photo Credit: Kincora Copper.

The third hole, TRDD003, is being drilled at Bayleys porphyry target, located approximately 1 km north-east of Mordialloc. For the fourth hole, the company plans to return to Trundle Park to follow-up on TRDD001.

The property has been extensively drilled in the past, with about 2,208 holes drilled over 61,146 metres, the company reports. However, about 92% of the holes were less than 50 metres deep and only 11 were deeper than 300 metres, which, the company believes, are too shallow given other major mines in the area.

The company now plans to drill another 14 to 20 holes at the targets to better understand and define the extent of the mineralisation.

“We’ll be drilling more deep holes to test for porphyries at depth, which is what is required at Macquarie Arc because all the surface areas have been thoroughly explored,” Holliday said. “Because they are at depth, the best way of targeting is to vector off the drill holes. So, we plan to drill 100 to 200 metre-spaced step-out holes going in the direction that the current holes are indicating where we should go.”

At press time in Toronto, Kincora was trading at 18¢ per share within a 52-week trading range of 1¢ and 19¢.

The company has 150 million common shares outstanding for a $27-million market capitalization.