Austral and Glencore are considering a collaboration to explore for copper oxides in Glencore’s tenure immediately east of the Lady Annie mining lease in North-west Queensland and to undertake studies, after sharing previous drill results by Glencore.

Austral’s Managing Director and CEO Dan Jauncey said Austral has been working collectively with Glencore on numerous opportunities to monetise some of their joining tenure.

For example, the company’s April 2023 announcement on re-optimising the Lady Annie pit shows copper oxides extending through into Glencore’s Lady Loretta mining lease.

The drill results include a significant intercept of 17 metres at 2.51 per cent copper in XLAT-17 from a depth of 54 metres, located just 100 metres northeast from the boundary of the Lady Annie mining lease.

Additional drill results show significant near-surface intercepts, such as 12 metres at 0.94 per cent copper from a depth of 49 metres, are also only 250 metres northeast of Austral’s Lady Annie boundary.

Austral considers these drilling results indicate there is a high probability to expand the existing Mineral Resource at Lady Annie.

“After working closely with Glencore over the last four years and forming an understanding that there are synergies in working together, this certainly makes for a win-win for both parties,” said Mr Jauncey.

“I have been talking about feeding the beast (our processing facility), I stated in April we want to increase our oxide feed by 60% by starting a mining campaign on our existing pits, and that we have 30,000 tonnes of oxide and transitional ore to mine, this certainly is in train now, and likely to increase with these results.

“We remain committed to maximising value for our shareholders and will continue to explore and capitalise on these opportunities.

“We believe that this collaboration between Austral Resources and Glencore represents a groundbreaking opportunity for the local mining industry.”

A Whittle optimisation study has also identified a potential for an additional 30,000 tonnes of contained copper as oxide and transitional mineral resource within Austral’s mining lease. Further drilling in 2023 (3,512m over a total of 43 holes) has extended copper oxide potential within Austral’s mining lease.

The collaboration is subject to binding documentation which is expected to be entered into within the next 60 days.