Copper developer New World has secured an option to acquire a 630 000 t, high-grade historical copper and zinc resource, located in a district of Arizona where the firm is currently actively exploring.
The ASX-listed company entered into a five-year option agreement to purchase a 100% interest in the Pinafore copper deposit, which is about 75 km from its 11.4-million-tonne-resource Antler deposit.
“This is yet another positive development as we implement our strategy of expanding our high-grade resource base – as we expect that a larger resource base will further enhance the already very robust economics of developing the Antler VMS deposit,” said New World MD Mike Haynes.
The Pinafore mineralisation averages grades of 3.4% copper and 7.1% zinc.
“Because of the very high grades, the shallow nature of mineralisation and the fact that the deposit is located on private land, Pinafore now becomes one of our highest priority immediate exploration targets, amongst our multitude of other very high-priority exploration targets,” said Haynes.
The company plans to mobilise a drilling rig to Pinafore in the coming weeks. It currently has a diamond core rig drilling at the Discus target, which is about 5 km north-east within the Javelin project.
“It’s important to note that, while we are confident we can discover extensions of the mineralisation at the Pinafore deposit, even if we can only delineate around 630 000 t, we could still have a very valuable development proposition on our hands as we could use the processing plant we intend building at Antler,” Haynes said.
New World is acquiring the option for an upfront payment of $300 000 in cash. Over the next five years, it will make yearly payments totalling $850 000.