True North revs up as high-grade Qld copper-gold sparks drilling blitz

True North Copper has launched reverse-circulation (RC) and diamond drilling at its Wallace North copper-gold deposit in northwest Queensland, in a fresh program aimed at growing a near-mine resource and feeding crucial technical work for upcoming development studies.

The company’s plan for Wallace includes six diamond holes for an estimated 1000 metres and eight RC holes for 1500m on its Wallace mining leases. The work will focus mainly on Wallace North, which already hosts an upgraded two-million-tonne resource grading 1.28 per cent copper and 0.77 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.

The company says the campaign has been designed to expand the open pit footprint through near-mine extensions. It will also follow up on standout 2025 drill hits and collect additional metallurgical and geotechnical data to support a 2026 pre-feasibility study for its broader Cloncurry copper project.

Management is clearly hunting for more of the same, pointing to high-grade intercepts from last year, including 9m at 4.33 per cent copper and 3.64g/t gold from 108m in an RC hole. A wider zone nearby, defined in a diamond drill intercept of 19m, assayed 2.18 per cent copper and 1.76 g/t gold from 106m.

‘Importantly, we see significant exploration upside across the broader Cloncurry system, with multiple near-infrastructure targets.’

True North Copper managing director Andrew Mooney

Wallace North has been shaping up as an important part of True North’s wider Cloncurry copper project. The project is being assessed as a potential hub-and-spoke mining opportunity in the Cloncurry and Mt Isa region, close to established infrastructure, regional concentrators and rail-to-port options.

The company has also recently flagged potential for strike and underground extensions at Wallace North, noting geological analogues with AIC Mines’ nearby Eloise and Jericho copper-gold systems.

Importantly, True North has cautioned that further work is required to verify those analogues. However, the current program is expected to boost confidence in the resource model and de-risk the deposit for study work.

Another near-mine target in the firing line is Buena Vista, which sits 1200m south-west of the current Wallace pit design boundary and just 230m south of the Wallace East footprint.

The prospect has already delivered encouraging copper-gold mineralisation, including 5m at 0.51 per cent copper and 2.44g/t gold from 51m in one of True North’s 2025 RC drill holes.

True North Copper managing director Andrew Mooney said: “The commencement of drilling at Wallace North marks an important step in advancing the Cloncurry Copper Project along a clear development pathway. This program is designed to both strengthen and grow our high-grade resource base, with a focus on near-mine extensions at Wallace North, while also generating the key metallurgical and geotechnical inputs required to support future development studies.”

Drilling at Wallace is scheduled to wrap up in late April, with assay results expected in the weeks that follow.

True North says it will then shift its drilling focus to the company’s flagship Mt Oxide operation to follow up on last year’s high-priority exploration results, including its 2025 Aquila discovery, which is already in an advanced stage of exploration.

To date, Aquila has been defined over more than 1km of strike and remains open in all directions. One standout RC drill intercept announced in August last year delivered 145m at 0.75 per cent copper, 0.12 per cent cobalt and 2.9g/t silver. The intersection also featured a sparkling 53-metre section at 1.18 per cent copper, 0.13 per cent cobalt and 3.6g/t silver from 86m.

True North Copper’s total estimated resource for its Cloncurry copper project currently sits at an indicated and inferred 13.63 million tonnes at 0.8 per cent copper for 109,000 tonnes of copper and a measured, indicated and inferred 2.7 million tonnes at 1.35g/t gold for 117,000 ounces of gold.

For now, with drill rods spinning on two drill rigs and key study data soon to come from the Wallace program to inform the company’s 2026 pre- feasibility study, True North looks set to keep the news flowing across its Queensland copper portfolio.

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