New high-grade drill hits paves way for Xanadu's copper dominance

Xanadu Mines’ (ASX: XAM) Kharmagtai Project in Mongolia has a contained copper resource that’s second only to Sandfire Resources. But ongoing drilling efforts might give the large cap a run for its money. 

Approximately 15,000 metres of a Phase One diamond drilling program has been completed (out of 30,000 metres total) at Kharmagtai’s Stockwork Hill and White Hill deposits.

“Our extensional and infill drilling program has progressed efficiently and is demonstrating results in line or materially better than the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate,” said Executive Chairman and Managing Director Colin Moorhead. 

“Pleasingly we’ve intersected new high-grade zones at Stockwork Hill within the existing Resource boundary, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the PFS.”

Infill drilling results

Assay results have been returned for 31 drill holes, with several delivering higher grades than current mineral resource estimates (for the respective deposit).

A few key intercepts across Stockwork Hill and White Hill include:

• 294m at 0.32% copper from 122m

• 34m at 1.10% copper from 285m

• 4.1m at 3.82% copper from 427m

Xanadu says these results have the potential to enhance its 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate of 3 million tonnes of contained copper and 8 million ounces of gold. 

Next steps

The infill drilling program is planned to increase the Resource confidence category from Inferred to Indicated, which involves removing any mineralisation knowledge gaps around the edges of existing deposits.

“Given we are only halfway through Phase 1, we are very excited on the drilling results to come and look forward to providing regular updates as we progress both infill and exploration drilling programs at Kharmagtai,” notes Moorhead.

Xanadu expects to deliver an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) in the December quarter of 2023, which seeks to incorporate the newly identified higher-grade zones and improved grades.

In parallel, the company is also progressing an aggressive 18,000 metre growth and discovery drilling program at Kharmagtai, which targets both at depth and shallow areas to upgrade resource classification and extend strike length. 

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