Kincora Copper has started drilling at its East Tsagaan Suvarga (TS) copper porphyry target in Mongolia's South Gobi region. The maiden reverse circulation and diamond drill program is expected to comprise 12 holes for approximately 2870 metres to less than 265 metres depth.
The company proposes that during a second phase it will undertake infill geophysics and a follow-up 5000 metre drill program.
East TS is a ‘brownfield’ open pit target, 13km from the existing Serven Sukhait open pit at the privately-owned Tsagaan Suvarga project.
East TS sits within the interpreted eastern margin in the TS Intrusive Complex which hosts the Serven Sukhait pit, various oxide resources and exploration targets on a northern structural corridor within the western margin of the intrusive.
The Serven Sukhait sulphide open pit has a 307 million tonnes @ 0.54% copper resource and is a billion dollar plus development project with the ore body pre-stripped and existing associated regional infrastructure, including grid power and neighbouring saline water aquifers.
Kincora’s drilling program will test a confirmed Devonian intrusive system for porphyry mineralisation comparable to the development projects in the belt - TS and Oyu Tolgoi.
East TS field season activities in 2016 and 2017 have included ground magnetics, detailed mapping, petrography, whole rock geochemistry with fertility analysis, and age dating to complement historic Induced Polarisation geophysics and soil geochemistry. The objective of ongoing field activities is to confirm the open pit and exploration analogue to TS.
Kincora holds the dominant land position in the region with a portfolio across 1437sqkm.
The company’s president and CEO Sam Spring said, “It is pleasing to be drilling at the East TS target within a week of final approvals for our $4.52 million equity offering.
“Kincora has commenced the first Tier 1 drilling program in recent years and the first modern district scale reconnaissance exploration program in what is a world-class but underexplored porphyry belt.
“In coming months we will undertake drilling at two targets, initially at East TS, and then Bayan Tal. These first phase programs will provide improved geological knowledge, with funds in place for follow up geophysics and second phase drilling for a total of approximately 16,000 metres.
“Our exploration programs will utilise number of advancements in global exploration techniques since the last wave of exploration in this belt by the likes of Ivanhoe, the BHP JV and IBEX, and will test our conceptual models of the first new Devonian porphyry systems in the Southern Gobi belt since Oyu Tolgoi, the latter being the largest expansion project globally in the industry.”
Kincora Copper