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Monday was a quiet day with the markets closed in Toronto, but Down Under there were rumbles of a new copper discovery in Australia’s Northern Territory. ASX-listed TNG announced a “significant high-grade copper discovery” at its McArthur River zinc project.
Those grades are exceptionally high, and TNG has already defined a priority zone for follow-up drilling.
Previous exploration at McArthur River has focused on zinc, as it’s located just 60 kilometers from Glencore’s (LSE:GLEN) McArthur River zinc mine. However, Monday’s exploration results clearly suggest that the property has copper potential as well.
This isn’t the first time exploration at McArthur River has turned up copper results — back in December, reconnaissance drilling returned results of more than 0.2 percent zinc and 0.2 percent copper. However, this is the first time exploration at the project has returned such high grades, sparking a fair bit of interest from the market.
“We have so far been focusing on the potential for McArthur River to host a world-scale zinc system, which we believe remains a very credible and realistic exploration opportunity,” said TNG Managing Director Paul Burton in a statement. “This latest discovery shows the potential for high-grade copper in the near-surface environment, which is an exciting development which adds substantial value to the project.”
That said, TNG won’t be hanging onto the McArthur river project for too much longer. Its main focus is its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project, and McArthur River is among its non-core base metals assets that will be included in a demerger set for later this year.
Still, investors interested in the copper space will no doubt be keeping an eye out for further exploration results from the project. In terms of what’s next, the company stated Monday that a program including additional rock sampling, geological mapping and geophysics has been planned, and may be conducted during the upcoming dry season.
On Monday, TNG’s share price gained over 17 percent on news of the high-grade results, closing at $0.115.
Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
