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- Castillo Copper (CCZ) has started drilling at the Big One deposit, which is part of its Mt Oxide project in Queensland
- A comprehensive reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign will focus on a strike zone of around 580 by 120 metres to a depth of 190m below surface
- The zone runs parallel to known mineralisation grading up to up to 28.4 per cent copper, with the best economic intercept of 3 metres at 12.25 per cent
- The campaign’s main goal is to probe the supergene copper mineralisation at depth to see if it transitions to underlying sulphides
- Upon completion of the campaign, CCZ should have considerable insights about the scalability of the Big One Deposit
- Castillo Copper is down 3.70 per cent to 5.2 cents
Castillo Copper (CCZ) has commenced drilling at the Big One deposit, which is part of its Mt Oxide project in Queensland.
The Big One
Castillo will be hoping the name says it all.
A 4,385-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign, consisting of 35 drill holes will focus on a strike zone of around 580 by 120 metres to test for mineralisation up to 190m below surface.
The program will target a zone parallel to known mineralisation. The campaign’s main goal is to probe the supergene copper mineralisation at depth to see if it transitions to underlying sulphides.
The previous drilling intersected up to 28.4 per cent copper, with the best high-grade economic intercept of 3 metres at 12.25 per cent.
Two diamond drill holes will also be drilled at acute angles to target shallow supergene mineralisation at vertical depths ranging from around 26 to 52 metres.
The next steps
Upon completion of the campaign, CCZ should have considerable insights about the scalability of the Big One Deposit.
If the parallel zone is as rich as the main zone, the find will provide significant economies of scale when it comes time to mine.
The shallow, high-grade copper resource had previously been explored by BHP. The mining giant was likely to pull the trigger on the development when copper prices crashed in the 1990s.
Now, Castillo can capitalise on BHP’s bad luck.
Results are expected in coming weeks as core samples are analysed.
Castillo Copper is down 3.70 per cent to 5.2 cents at 1:27pm AEDT.
