Great Western Exploration to earn entry into a highly prospective McKinlay copper gold project in Cloncurry

• Previous drilling intersected gold and copper
• Number of highly prospective Ernest Henry-style copper-gold targets already identified
• Little to no exploration completed at McKinlay in past 25 years
• Under farm-in Great Western can earn a 51% interest in McKinlay

Great Western Exploration (ASX: GTE) intends to undertake an aggressive exploration program including air core and RC drilling after entering into an agreement to earn into the McKinlay copper-gold and silver project in Queensland.

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Under a farm-in with private company Moffat Resources, Great Western can earn a 51% interest in McKinlay in return for spending $500,000 on exploration and a further 29% interest by spending another $2 million on exploration expenditure.

The company can then achieve 100% ownership of the project by paying the vendors up to $2 million in cash and/or shares.

Great Western intends to reverse the recent lack of activity at the project where little to no exploration has been completed in the past 25 years.

Chairman, Kevin Somes, said the company believes that utilising modern exploration techniques presents the opportunity for world class discovery.

In particular Great Western believes there is significant opportunity to make Ernest Henry style iron oxide copper gold (IOCGs) and Cannington/Broken Hill Type (CBHT) silver-lead discoveries.

The company said the potential was recently underscored by AIC Mines reporting of significant copper and gold results from the Brumby prospect, just 26 kilometres south-west of the McKinlay project.

McKinlay is located in the prolific Mt Isa Eastern Succession, host to giant, long-life mines, such as the Ernest Henry, Eloise, and Osborne copper-gold mines, and the Cannington silver-lead mine, one of the largest Silver-Lead deposits in the world.

Mr Somes said these giant deposits are located close to and share the same geological units as the McKinlay project.

GTE was steady at 0.9¢ with a Mkt cap of $6.988M prior to markets opening.

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