REPRESENTATIVES of new Coppermoly investor Ever Leap Services have visited the company’s New Britain to familiarise themselves with the company’s two main tenements – Nakru and Simuku. The visitors also assessed the potential to apply their considerable engineering and mining expertise to further development of the properties.

Coppermoly’s tenements are on the island of New Britain.

Coppermoly says that the trip was very successful with all parties enthused by the potential of the tenements.

Ever Leap is the company’s largest shareholder after investing $2.5 million in the first half of 2016 and is a purposely established project company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanxi Xierun Investment Limited. Shanxi Xierun is a diversified private investment company, with significant interests in various civil engineering and infrastructure projects China and bauxite mines in the Shanxi region.

Shanxi Xierun is controlled by interests associated with Yu Chao, a qualified senior engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the construction and mining industries.

Coppermoly director Dr Wanfu Huang said, “This is a great outcome for Coppermoly as it secures funding in a very difficult capital market for junior exploration companies. This funding will allow Coppermoly to get back on the ground in PNG and concentrate its efforts on its major projects.”

As part of the PNG trip Coppermoly’s representatives met with potential drill contractors for an upcoming exploration program at Nakru. Advanced preparations for the planned program include up to 10 drill holes concentrating on the Nakru 1 and adjacent Nakru 2 prospects where drilling in 2014 intersected high grade near-surface copper mineralisation. It is expected that the program will be started by the end of the year.

During the June 2016 quarter the company made several visits to its main tenements to maintain good relations with local landowners, carry out maintenance work on the tenements and collect mineral samples for library and other internal studies. Also during the quarter the company moved its operations base in Kimbe to more suitable premises close to the town centre and port area, and held productive meetings with landowners from some of the company’s tenements.

Renewal applications for the Makmak and Wowonga exploration licences have been accepted by the Mineral Resource Authority. Warden hearings for both licences set down for July 2016 were postponed to early September due to adverse weather and state of the roads between Kimbe and New Britain’s south coast.