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Andrew Todd
True North Copper has fired up the geophysics at its Mt Oxide project in Queensland, launching an induced polarisation (IP) survey to extend its emerging Aquila copper discovery and generate a pipeline of new drill-ready targets.
The exploration strategy builds on a proven formula for the company, one that in fact led to the Aquila discovery just last year. The geophysical approach led to broad, high-grade copper intercepts, including a massive 145 metres at 0.75 per cent copper and 59m at 1.77 per cent copper.
The new program will expand the company’s plan of attack across a much larger 11km-plus structural corridor, targeting extensions to Aquila and a suite of regional prospects including Ivena, Rhea, Apollo and Acanthis.
True North says its core focus is the Dorman fault and the broader Mt Gordon corridor, which hosts the company’s substantial Vero deposit. And in a handy bit of nearology, 29Metal’s 20-million-tonne underground Capricorn copper deposit, grading 1.2 per cent, sits just 30km to the south.
‘Our geophysics-led approach can deliver high-quality copper discoveries along the Dorman Fault and broader Mt Gordon corridor.’
True North Copper managing director Andrew Mooney
True North says IP was chosen as the preferred geophysical technique because of its response to the highly conductive and chargeable chalcocite (copper sulphide) mineralogy that is common in the region’s deposits.
Importantly, management believes the local geology lacks certain types of conductive shales that can often give false-positive responses from geophysics, making the method a particularly effective tool for zeroing in on genuine targets.
The work is expected to provide pivotal datasets to refine and prioritise drill targets for the upcoming 2026 drilling season, which is expected to kick off in a matter of days.
True North Copper managing director Andrew Mooney said: “The Aquila discovery has demonstrated the scale and potential of the Mt Oxide system, confirming that our geophysics-led approach can deliver high-quality copper discoveries along the Dorman Fault and broader Mt Gordon corridor.”
The initial discovery hole at Aquila in the middle of last year returned a remarkable 30m intercept grading 2.45 per cent copper from just 20m downhole, including a higher-grade zone of 10m at 5.31 per cent copper.
Subsequent drilling confirmed a scalable mineralised system, with results including a 145m hit and a 98m chunk running 0.61 per cent copper from 57m.
True North has a knack for finding copper in this part of the world, with a growing list of prospects and multiple promising deposits across Northwest Queensland in a US$6 per pound copper environment.
The company also hosts a swath of copper resources at its Cloncurry development to the Southeast. The broader Cloncurry area has a storied past and is home to a plethora of old copper operations, many of which are approaching the end of their mine lives.
True North has strategically partnered with global heavyweight Glencore at Cloncurry, in a collaboration to quickly toll treat its Cloncurry resources, with locked-in offtake agreements for copper concentrate, supporting True North’s near-term production and processing ambitions.
The near-term cash has been largely earmarked to fund the exploration strategies at Mt Oxide, including the growth of the high-grade Vero deposit. Inventories at Vero currently stand at a substantial 15.03 million tonnes, grading 1.46 per cent copper and 10.58g/t silver, alongside a cobalt resource of 9.15Mt grading 0.23 per cent.
Now, with the survey crews back on the ground and the drill rigs mobilising, the company is looking to replicate its discovery and resource success across a much larger stretch of ground.
The hope for True North is that this expanded survey lights up a conga line of new anomalies and that the drillers now on site will be in for a very busy year in Queensland’s rich copper heart.
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