The drilling programme has begun with rigs mobilized at Salebury and Kangaroo Rat deposits.
In NW Queensland, Exco holds a sizeable land package in the prospective Mt Isa Block, which is split into two main project areas.
The Cloncurry Project covers over 1,920km2 and encompasses the Tringadee, Pumpkin Gully and Soldier’s Cap project areas while the Hazel Creek Project covers 1,000km2 of prospective land that remains relatively unexplored.
The Cloncurry Lineament, on which a considerable portion of Exco’s tenements are located, includes potential ground that runs from BHP’s Cannington silver-lead-zinc mine to Xstrata’s Ernest Henry aopper-gold mine.
The main target for Exco in the Eastern Succession of the Mt Isa Inlier is Ernest Henry-style iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineralization.
Previous surveys have highlighted several prominent geophysical anomalies associated with surface indications of copper and gold mineralization, which Exco believes are key geological and structural positions.
Soil surveys at the Canteen/Weatherly Creek prospect have suggested strong copper-gold-iron-potassium-phosphorus-uranium at surface, at grades of about 0.27% copper and 0.43 grams per tone (g/t) gold.
Current drilling for a maximum depth of 250m or less than 10% of the prospect, has found broad widths of mineralization with peak values up to 4.43% copper, 2.46g/t gold and 830 parts per million uranium.
Tier one targets have been identified and the company’s exploration work also includes exploring third party transactions or tier two targets.
Exco has finalized a three year program over the whole of its northwest Queensland portfolio to generate a pipeline of new targets through application of geophysics and soil geochemistry data.
