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QMines sparks new beginning

for Mt Chalmers

he former Alt Resources team is set to Lanskey will be managing director of got just under 4mt in the resource at the
Tmake a comeback to the ASX over the QMines, while Hansen will serve as inde- moment, but we expect we’ll be able to
coming months via a new float aimed at pendent non-executive director and com- grow those tonnes quite quickly once we
reviving the historic Mt Chalmers copper- pany secretary. Anderson, who founded get that RC drilling going.”
gold mine in Queensland. Alt and was its former chief executive, Sparke said the move from WA to
Former Alt directors Andrew Sparke, rounds out the team as general manager Queensland had been relatively seamless
James Anderson and Elissa Hansen have operations. thanks to the assistance the QMines team
joined forces with Austex Oil Ltd founder QMines acquired Mt Chalmers, which has continues to receive from authorities such
Daniel Lanskey to form QMines Ltd. The not been mined since 1982, towards the end as the Department of Abandoned Mines
company lodged its prospectus with ASIC of last year. Sporadic production over almost a which owns the Mt Chalmers site, 17km
last month and is now seeking to raise century totalled 1.24mt @ 2% copper, 3.6 g/t north-east of Rockhampton.
$10-20 million to list on the ASX before the gold and 19 g/t silver (all recovered grades). “I have to say that it has been quite re-
end of the financial year. The resource at Mt Chalmers was recently freshing coming to Queensland because
Sydney-based brokers Shaw and Part- updated to a JORC-compliant 3.9mt @ we’ve found the department to be very
ners is assisting the company with the IPO 1.15% copper, 0.81 g/t gold and 8.4 g/t silver. helpful in terms of getting information on
which has already attracted interest from This equates to a copper equivalent resource the old mine site and accessing the his-
some large resource funds out of Europe of 73,000t @ 1.87% copper. toric data,” Sparke said.
and several former Alt shareholders. Sparke said Mt Chalmers had a lot of simi- “We’re building relationships with the lo-
Alt, which was developing the Mt Ida and larities to another VMS-style mine “just 70km cal communities and the various resource
Bottle Creek projects in Western Australia, down the road” in Mt Morgans, currently and environmental authorities. We want
was acquired by private equity group Au- owned by Heritage Minerals. to do things sustainably and certainly be
renne Ularring via an off-market takeover “Both are quite unusual VMS deposits good corporate citizens in the region.”
in September last year. The deal was com- in that both were actually very high-grade Sparke added that QMines presented
pleted at a 10% premium to Alt’s highest copper and very high-grade gold,” he said. one of the few opportunities on the ASX to
trading price over the preceding two years “They’re actually both in the top 5% of global “play copper”.
and at a 74% premium to the company’s VMS deposits in terms of gold grades. Obvi- “I was a resource fund manager for five
closing price before the takeover bid was ously Mt Morgans was a real freak, so hope- years and we invested about $300 million
announced. fully we can replicate some of that success across about 40 investments on the ASX
Sparke, who will be executive chairman with what we’re looking to do at Mt Chalmers.” and in London and what that taught me is
of QMines, said there was no reason why Pending a successful IPO, QMines will im- that there really isn’t many ways you can
his new company could not deliver similar mediately launch into a diamond drilling pro- play copper,” he said.
value for shareholders. gramme targeting extensions to the existing “There’s only about 16 ways to play cop-
“We’ve brought a lot of the same team Mt Chalmers pit. per on the ASX, but when you peel back
over that were very successful in execut- RC drilling is also planned for three explo- the onion and look closely at those differ-
ing the Alt Resources business plan over a ration targets – Woods Shaft, Botos and Mt ent listed companies, there really is only
period of two years,” Sparke told Paydirt. Warminster – which the company is confident three developers with assets in Australia.
“We’ve got a team that has demon- of quickly converting into JORC-compliant re- There’s a scarcity factor with copper that
strated we can deliver, our people are sources. you just don’t see in gold.
very hands on and know how to execute “We already have a pretty good feel for the “If you want copper, Queensland is the
resource business plans and make mon- tonnes and grade at those three exploration key state for finding large copper mines.”
ey for shareholders. We’re really excited targets, which are all near-mine and have
about getting listed, getting the drill rods already been drilled and modelled,” Sparke – Michael Washbourne
turning and growing the resource at Mt said.
Chalmers.” “We’re going after tonnes here. We’ve

QMines is seeking to raise up to $20
million via an IPO to bring the historic
Mt Chalmers copper-gold mine back
into production

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aPRIL 2021 Page 37