Exco Resources (ASX: EXS) will kick off reverse circulation drilling on a number of the company’s key exploration projects within the Cloncurry Copper and Hazel Creek projects.
The drilling programs are planned to follow up on previous results and focus on untested geophysical anomalies.
The E1 camp contains a sizable resource base comprising 44.8Mt at 0.75 per cent Cu and 0.21g/t Au holding 338,000t of copper and 309,000oz of gold.
Recent drilling on the area has been successful in expanding both the resource base and converting 55 per cent of inferred resources to the indicated category.
Meanwhile, established resources at the Monakoff and Monakoff East deposits together comprise 4Mt at 1.32 per cent Cu and 0.42g/t containing 53,000t of copper and 54,000oz of gold.
The company believes a key aspect of the deposit is its higher grade, with the region surrounding Monakoff playing host to a number of buried magnetic anomalies.
The Pumpkin Gulley Syncline hosts numerous prospects in a range of geological settings.
The ironstone, which contains the Monakoff, Monakoff East, Pumpkin Gulley and Fisher Creek West prospects, has a total strike length of more than 10km.
Initial programs will focus on the Fisher Creek West area where last year’s drilling of a coincident magnetic and induced polarisation geophysical anomaly intersected 20m at 0.84 per cent Cu and 0.23g/t Au.
Zones of copper mineralisation associated with brecciate siliceous and calc silicate rocks have been mapped out at the Tannabah prospect over a strike length of more than 400m.
Initial programs at the Hazel Creek project, which includes the Turpentine deposit, will focus on Eighty Mile Creek East where shallow RC drilling several years ago tested two magnetic anomalies about 500m apart.
Both returned positive results of 16m at 0.86 per cent Cu and 0.2g/t Au and 14m at 0.7 per cent Cu and 0.21g/t Au.
Works will also be carried out at Turpentine South where the most recent drilling late last year intersected near surface oxide mineralisation, including 12m at 0.79 per cent Cu and 0.42g/t Au.
Shares in Exco were slightly up by 1c, or 3.9 per cent, to 26.5c.