CuFe Limited (ASX: CUF), a mineral exploration, development, and production company, specializing in Copper, Iron, and Gold, has brought its existing resources to Tennant Creek, a project owned by 60%. This complies with the current 2012 JORC code. Resources at the Orlando project were estimated by Snowden Optiro Consultants to be 6.5Mt grading 1.8% copper and 0.7 g/t gold. It also contains accessory cobalt, silver, zinc, bismuth, lead, and iron after reviewing and completing additional requirements.
Although these estimates were not significantly different from the 2004 numbers, reframing the resources provides the company with a concrete baseline to work with following the 2012 JORC code. This has made the mineral exploration company embark on a 4,000m program of diamond drilling and reverse circulation. The reverse circulation drilling will concentrate on infill drilling to increase confidence in the resource. However, some will be used to test step-out targets and water monitoring purposes.
Drilled diamond holes will help provide a core to support metallurgical and geotechnical test work. This will further the company’s understanding of the orebody. Mark Hancock, the executive director of CuFe, said,
“It’s exciting for us to announce our first drilling program at Tennant Creek, which will provide multi-faceted insights into our Orlando project to supplement the feasibility and approvals work currently being undertaken.” He continued, “We will also step up our review of the exploration potential of the area, where historical drilling has identified a number of prospects that require further follow-up.”
The Orlando project is a vast project that covers approximately 240km2 in the high-grade and highly prospective Gecko-Goanna copper-gold corridor, which has produced over 5.5 million ounces of gold at 19.3g/t and 488kt copper at 2.9%. The project consists of the Orlando, Gecko, and Goanna resources. The Orlando resources have a potential for near-term production through a cut back to the Orlando pit before underground development.
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