Exploration company Ironbark Zinc has completed the acquisition of an 80% interest in the Simon and Anderson projects, in Mt Isa, Queensland, from fellow-listed Aeon Metals.

The company finalised the acquisition following a successful site reconnaissance trip last month.

“Making full use of our available 30-day due diligence window, the team were able to have access granted, various resources mobilised and seven days spent in the field within two weeks of the deal being signed,” said Ironbark MD Michael Jardine.

“Pleasingly, this trip has confirmed our view that the projects have considerable prospectivity and are underexplored, and we have now closed the deal to acquire the tenements from Aeon.

“We will be back in the field in the September quarter as we look go define drill targets for a maiden campaign within 12 months, most likely on the Anderson project,” said Jardine.

During the recent site visit conducted to the Anderson project, exploration was focused on the known copper occurrence, the Carter’s Ridge prospect, in the southern part of the tenement. The prospect was drilled in the early 1980s with Carpentaria Exploration drilling six holes, totalling 1 313.2 m, into the prospect. One hole was abandoned, and of the five successfully completed holes the best intercept was 2.2 m at 0.48% copper in DDH001. Native copper was also intersected twice within DDH001. Little other exploration work has been completed at Carter’s Ridge historically.

Sixteen samples were taken from the Carter’s Ridge Prospect – 12 rock chip and four stream sediment – which have been sent to ALS laboratory in Mt Isa for analysis. A portable X-Ray Fluorescence device (pXRF) was used in the field on all samples prior to laboratory submission. Several samples returned anomalous copper readings including a volcaniclastic breccia with manganese and goethite cement that returned 2 977 parts a million copper.

In the south-western section of the licence an outcropping granite pegmatite was mapped and sampled. This granite suite may have potential for rare earths, tantalum and niobium mineralisation, Ironbark notes.

The Simon project is located adjacent to Austral Resources’ McLeod Hill mining licence and its 5 000 t/y Mt Kelly heap leach and SX-EW processing facility.