Duke Exploration Limited have announced acquisition of Copper Corp & True North Copper Assets. True North holds a portfolio of advanced copper and gold assets within the world class copper belt of the Mt Isa Inliers.
Agreement to acquire the Great Australia Mine complex and numerous other mining assets, located in the world class copper belt of the Mt Isa Inliers, via the acquisition of True North Copper.
True North Copper holds:
– A significant copper asset package containing 26.94 Mt at 1.12% Cu (307.21 kt Cu)1,
2, 3, 4, 5 In Measured, Indicated and Inferred JORC copper resource (excluding the
existing DEX Bundarra resource)
– A separate high-grade cobalt Measured, Indicated, and Inferred JORC cobalt resource
containing a combined 9.15 Mt at 0.23% Co (21.20 kt Co) 6
– The Cloncurry Great Australia Mine (GAM) complex oxide and sulphide processing
facilities, currently on care & maintenance
– More than 552 square kilometres of prospective exploration tenements providing large
scale coverage of a highly prospective region hosting numerous further targets and
deposits.
– Majority of projects located on fully permitted existing mining leases supported by significant
infrastructure
– Opportunity to fast-track several assets into production (subject to completion of further
technical studies and financing)
– Compelling pipeline of resource expansion and greenfield discovery targets
Duke Exploration Managing Director Philip Condon said about the Proposed Transaction, “the deal provides a pathway to accelerate the scale and development options available to DEX to fulfil our commitment to our shareholders of being a future copper producer.”
True North Copper Managing Director Marty Costello commented about the transaction, “we were presented with the opportunity to team-up with a like-minded group focused on developing a future Queensland copper producer. Our business model of being a near term producer being able to offer a number of copper products (high grade copper sulphate and copper concentrate), will underpin future exploration and resource definition success. Much of our mineral tenure (exploration and mining) has had no significant exploration conducted for at least the last 10 years.”
The directors of the Company are of the view that the Proposed Transaction will create a significant opportunity for both DEX and TNC shareholders through the creation of a significantly larger company with a portfolio of copper, gold, and cobalt assets in Queensland, some of which have the potential to be accelerated into near term production due to granted mining leases and processing facilities currently on care and maintenance.
Wattlestone invested as a minority shareholder in CopperCorp which was acquired as part of the True North and Duke Exploration acquisition. CopperCorp owned 12 mining leases, 5 exploration permits and 1 exploration permit application that will form part of the Cloncurry Copper-Gold Restart Project. The acquisition is targeted to close late May 2023.
