Carnaby Resources Identifies High-Grade Miniboom Copper Discovery within Greater Duchess Project

Carnaby Resources (ASX: CNB) has announced the discovery of the Miniboom high-grade copper shoot at the Mount Hope Central ore reserve within its Greater Duchess project in Queensland.

Identified by a vertical reverse circulation drill hole targeting a water bore on the edge of the planned open pit, the company believes the shoot is a shallow high-grade extension of the Boomerang lode structure.

Best copper equivalent assays from the discovery were 232 metres at 1.3% CuEq (1.1% copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold) from surface including 65m at 2.9% CuEq (2.4% copper and 0.5g/t gold) from 25m.

Along with the main Boomerang Lode, Carnaby regards the Miniboom Lode as another high grade focus for mineralisation, although its significance to the Greater Duchess project is yet to be confirmed.

Trek 2 Drill Result

Carnaby has received a further drill result from step-out extension work at Trek 2, where recent high grade results below the open-pit design demonstrate excellent potential to grow the resource and production target.

The new result of 53m @ 0.4% CuEq from 182m is approximately 60m down dip of the recently reported hit of 35m @ 2.9% CuEq, which suggests the higher-grade plunge is further to the northeast.

The infill and extension drilling at Trek 2 will look to grow the mineral resource estimate (MRE), as well as convert Inferred material to the Indicated category and potentially allow an updated open pit at Trek 2 to increase in size.

Carnaby intends to re-optimise the Trek 2 open pit after completing an updated MRE in the next few months, and will utilise the existing ore reserve open pit a starting pit for the current feasibility study (FS).

Project Exploration Upside

Managing director Rob Watkins said the Miniboom discovery reinforced the exploration upside at Greater Duchess.

“Mount Hope is strongly controlled in folded and structurally displaced quartz vein lode hosts in multiple orientations [which] means that new lodes are easy to miss in directed drilling, however equally there are likely more to be found,” he said.

“Thankfully the water bore didn’t intersect a lot of water [and] further drilling is now underway to understand the significance of this discovery and potential impact on the size of the Mount Hope Central open pit given its proximity to the planned open-pit edge.”

Carnaby remains on track to complete the Greater Duchess FS by mid-year prior to final investment decision and targeted first ore production in before the end of 2026.