Highway Reward Copper Gold Mine
Queensland, Australia
Project Overview
The Highway Reward Copper Gold Mine in Queensland, Australia, one of the highest-grade copper mines worldwide, with past production totalling 3.65 million tonnes at 5.7% Cu and 260,000 tonnes at 4.5 g/t Au is the first step in Loyal’s Strategic Plan to broaden its critical metals portfolio. The project represents a unique opportunity and has had no exploration conducted on the mining leases since mining ceased in July 2005, despite a ~680% increase in copper prices and a ~1,256% increase in gold prices since the 1997 feasibility study. With the growth in commodity prices and advancements in exploration and mining technologies, the potential for remnant copper-gold mining has significantly improved.
Figure 1.0 The Highway Reward Copper Gold Mine in Queensland, Australia - one of the world’s highest-grade copper mines, with past production totalling 3.65Mt at 5.7% Cu and 260,000 tonnes at 4.5 g/t Au.
Figure 2.0 Highway Reward Copper Gold Mine: Geology interpretation plan of granted mining leases showing 3km strike of favourable northeast geological trends within the Trooper Creek dacite, rhyolite & volcanoclastic rocks that host the Highway Reward Copper Gold Mine. Note the widespread Tertiary-Quaternary Cover Sediments that conceal basement rocks that host high-grade copper gold in the mine (modified from Beams).
Previous mining operations targeted copper within chalcopyrite, while gold associated with both chalcopyrite and pyrite was excluded from the mine plan. With lower copper equivalent cut-off grades (copper & gold), higher continuity of copper-gold can be drill tested to demonstrate the reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction and mineral resource potential.
Significant potential will be assessed and areas tested for copper-gold extensions to subvertical trends, that may exist below current mining levels at the Highway Reward Copper-Gold Mine. The previously mined, copper-gold rich pipes will also be assessed for drill testing along strike (Figure 2). Previous mining and surface mapping geological observations illustrate that high-grade copper-gold pipes have been identified in dacite, rhyolite, and volcaniclastic host rocks, therefore strong prospectivity exists for discovering additional pipes beyond the historically mined zones in all rock types on the property, except recent overlying sediments that conceal the basement host rocks (Figure 2). No modern advanced geophysical techniques or data processing methods have yet been applied to assess this potential.
