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QueensLAnD

Back on board with Develin Creek

y Zenith Minerals Ltd’s own admis- told Paydirt the programme at Snook,
Bsion, its Develin Creek copper project, within the VMS-style copper-base met-
west of Rockhampton, has been well and als Develin Creek project which spans
truly on the backburner such has been a strike length over 50km, confirmed the
the rush to gold in recent times. prospective cluster model for the com-
A maiden drilling campaign continues pany.
at Red Mountain in Queensland (13m @ He said the area at Snook was likely
8 g/t gold, including 6m @ 16.7 g/t from a footwall feeder zone, with first pass
surface and 15m @ 3.5 g/t and 2m @ 8 drill results including 3m of massive and
g/t gold and 109.4 g/t silver), while drilling semi-massive sulphides at 20m depth.
at the Split Rocks gold project in Western A result of 3m @ 1.6% copper, 1.1%
Australia has already been completed zinc, 43 g/t silver and 0.2 g/t gold was
this year. announced from Snook, with further geo-
Meanwhile, drilling is planned at the logical and structural mapping of the sur-
Jackadgery gold project in New South rounding area providing encouragement
Wales in early 2021, where Zenith is for follow-up drilling this month.
earning a 90% interest. Drilling at Snook will follow a diamond
With a handful of core gold projects to drill-hole twin programme of three holes
be managed, Zenith has also allocated at Sulphide City which hosts the current
budget this year to get busy once again inferred resource of 2.57mt @ 1.76%
at Develin Creek. copper, 2.01% zinc, 0.24 g/t gold and 9.6
g/t at Develin Creek.
“Develin Creek has seemed to be our
No.3 project and it wasn’t getting the ef-
fort or attention, and therefore the budg-
et, from us,” Clifford said.
Zenith was sitting on a cash balance of
$3.8 million (end of December), enough
to spread evenly amongst its projects, in-
cluding Develin Creek.
The motivation to reconnect more Snook is 30km south of the Sulphide
deeply with Develin Creek has been born City resource at Develin Creek, west of
from the fundamental drivers which are Rockhampton
pushing copper prices upwards, with Ze-
nith stating that “a forward capital com-
mitment of circa $US106 billion” is need- in the district. The hit at Snook, 30km
ed to ensure an estimated supply deficit south of Sulphide City, brought our atten-
of 5.4mt is met by 2028. tion back to the project and the broader
Majors such as BHP Ltd and Rio Tinto copper thematic means we are going to
Ltd are spending big on copper explora- push it a lot harder.”
tion in deep and challenging terrain, but Traditional uses of copper – pipe fab-
there appears a dearth of activity on the rication and electrical wire manufacture
junior copper exploration front. – have been growing at about 2% p.a. for
“We have had a couple of unsolicited some time – with total market consump-
approaches on a number of our copper tion about 22-23 mtpa. Add electrification
projects in Queensland; Develin Creek and the worldwide push to a clean, green
being one but also Flanagans. I think future, and Clifford has no doubt copper
it shows the merit of doing your project is the sexiest of all EV metals.
generation work when the market is a “It is the one that gives you broadest ex-
The presence of massive sulphides at little softer and times are a bit leaner, posure to anything that is electrified,” he
Snook has regenerated some interest so these types of projects are ready for said. “Certainly, there has not been that
in Develin Creek focus from juniors into copper – there are
when the cycle turns,” Clifford said.
“The big companies are in challeng- a few specialists that have been doing it
It has been five years since the com- ing terrain – BHP is 500-600m under – but many junior companies have gone
pany has paid any great deal of attention cover at Olympic Dam and Rio’s Winu is with the bread and butter of gold. There
to Develin Creek, however, in late 2020 a tough logistically and expensive – so for are certainly some prospective copper
seven-hole RC drilling programme test- a junior like us to be able to go back to an areas that have been forgotten and De-
ing a small area of the greenfields Snook area that has not had much exploration velin Creek is a great example of that.”
prospect proved fruitful. activity and use basic exploration tools – Mark Andrews
Zenith managing director Mick Clifford encourages us that there has to be more

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