A LONGSTANDING exploration application for Powell tenement in East New Britain has been granted to Coppermoly by PNG’s Minister for Mining for two years. The 763sqkm tenement lies in the Powell Copper Belt, a northwest trending fault structure highly similar to the Kulu-Awit structure containing Coppermoly’s advanced licences and applications in West New Britain.

Powell expands Coppermoly’s New Britain land assets significantly in a new copper belt while introducing new exploration potential where existing expertise and facilities can be applied. This has occurred without the company taking on substantial additional expenditure commitments in the short-term.

In his address at the company’s annual meeting in November, chairman Tom Revy said: “Shareholders were informed at last year’s AGM that the company was focused on the restoration of 100% ownership of its tenements. A majority interest in the Nakru, Simuku and Talelumas exploration licences has been reacquired and a pathway established for reacquisition of the remainder on or before June 2018. These are very valuable assets. Indeed, in our opinion they are amongst the best copper prospects in Papua New Guinea, which means they are potentially world-class.

“We are very cognisant of the fact that, having made this challenging commercial decision, we must now proceed with the core business of adding value and generating shareholder wealth. It is an undisputed fact that equity markets for mineral exploration have been extremely difficult in the past year. Nevertheless, in testimony to the quality of the assets, we were able to attract funding at a premium which enabled completion of the first stage of the reacquisition and completion of minimum work requirements on the licences.

“The capital raising was completed through a pro-rata entitlement issue with the objective of enabling shareholders to maintain their percentage equity if they wished. Coppermoly is back in control of its very valuable assets. This is a big win for Coppermoly and we are determined to ensure that the full value of our West New Britain assets is realized.

“With this in mind we will seek to raise additional funds to be directed predominantly to drilling of Nakru02 prospect. Our development goal is 60-100 million tonnes @ 1% copper equivalent and the commencement of a development study by the fourth quarter of 2014.

“In the first year since being granted the Makmak licence it has been the focus of surface sampling and mapping. Potential drilling targets have been identified, most notably Pulding copper prospect. Some samples collected also returned exceptionally high iron assays,” Tom Revy added.