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New Frontier Minerals (ASX:NFM) is confident it’s on track for early production from the Big One copper deposit after receiving technical assessment approval for its mining lease application for the Queensland project.
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The Queensland-focused company has identified an opportunity to utilise Austral’s Mt Kelly processing facility to create near-term production from the Big One, part of the company’s Northwest Queensland copper project.
Chairman Gerard Hall says growing demand for copper makes the Big One an attractive option in parallel with the company’s diversified rare earth strategy.
“New Frontier continues to advance its diversified portfolio of critical minerals projects, with the strengthening outlook for copper highlighting the strategic importance of the NWQ Copper project,” he told shareholders today.
Mr Hall continued: “With a strong working capital position of approximately $2.62 million and additional funding expected from grants and R&D rebates, New Frontier is well-positioned to advance its key projects.”
The Big One deposit hosts a mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 2.1 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.1% copper. The opportunity for a fast-track, low-strip, near-surface development opportunity has been boosted by the identification of surface stockpiles of around 7,400 tonnes at 1.2% copper.
“New Frontier is specifically targeting additional stockpile material and mineralisation from zero to 50m depth, where the high-grade near-surface copper zones are concentrated,” Mr Hall explained this morning.
Selective grab sampling of the historical ex-mine stockpiles returned copper grades ranging from 3.9% to 11.85% copper, confirming the high-grade nature of near-surface mineralisation.
The proposed initial development plan will see open-cut mining and transport of existing historical stockpiles to the Mt Kelly processing facility under an existing memorandum of understanding with Austral Resources.
Elsewhere, New Frontier continues its assessment of the Harts Range project near Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory. The current focus includes the project’s tungsten potential, while exploration is assessing the remaining 40 untested heavy rare earth geophysical targets.
NFM is also carrying out low-cost metallurgical test work at the Pomme rare earth element (REE) niobium project in Quebec, Canada.
NFM is steady at 0.9cps this morning. Mkt cap $15.59M.
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