Exploration Projects
Windsor Base Metals Project
The Windsor tenements are located 60 kilometres south of Charters Towers in north Queensland. Covering 629 square kilometres, the tenements cover a significant portion of the Mt Windsor Volcanics belt, which offers discovery potential for high-grade Volcanic Hosted Massive Sulphide (VHMS) style mines, such as the nearby Thalanga, Highway-Reward, Waterloo and Liontown deposits.
VHMS deposits in the Mt Windsor belt typically occur and favourable stratigraphic horizons which are interpreted to continue through the Windsor project area. Previous exploration targeting has been based largely on surface geochemistry with lesser utilisation of ground geophysics. A shallow cover sequence covers the southern margin of the belt which has inhibited surface geochemistry. AIC’s strategy is to focus on covering favourable stratigraphic horizons underexplored in the exposed regions and undercover regions with ground geophysics to generate a new portfolio of quality prospects ready for testing by drilling.
Pyramid Gold Project
The Pyramid tenement group is located southeast of Charters Towers in north Queensland on the northern margin of the Drummond Basin Gold Province. The project, covering 150 square kilometres, encompassing the Pyramid Range Fault corridor that is prospective for Intrusion Related Gold Systems (IRGS) and Low Sulphidation Epithermal gold deposits, similar in style to other well-known gold deposits in the district such as Mount Leyshon (+3.5Moz) and Mount Wright (+1Moz).
The project contains the Sellheim-Gettysberg gold mineral occurrence located on the Western Pyramid Range Fault. Gettysberg has returned higher grade vein sets with a larger mineralised halo (10 to 60m true width at >0.5g/t Au). Results from the 600m long zone includes; 94m @ 0.67g/t Au including 20m @ 2.18g/t Au in MGTRC009, 35m @ 4/g/t Au including 5m @ 23.2g/t Au in MGTRC 016, 88m @ 1.27g/t Au including 15m @ 4.22g/t Au in MGTRC018 and 23m @ 3.22g/t Au including 2m @28.3g/t Au. There is high potential to expand the gold mineralisation footprint defined, both at Gettysberg itself and along the ~8 kilometre section of the Pyramid Range Fault corridor to the southwest. An untested portion of the same corridor continues into the Teco Prospect to the south on EPM25154, all of which is outcropping and amenable to conventional exploration.
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Cannington Base Metals Project
The Cannington project is located approximately 80 kilometres south of Eloise, centred on the southern margin of the Swan Granite between the major mines of Osborne (Cu-Au) to the southwest and Cannington (Pb-Zn-Ag) to the east, with tenure trending north toward Eloise capturing the southern extension of the Levuka Shear Zone and the NNW trending Cloncurry Fault. The project consists of an area of 824 square kilometres.
The project captures rocks of the Soldiers Cap Group, as well as the older Staveley and Corella Formations, and is prospective for Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) and Iron Sulphide Copper Gold (ISCG) deposits, such as Osborne (Pre mining resource of 27Mt @1.4% Cu, 0.8g/t Au; Ivanhoe Mines 2010) and Broken Hill Style Pb-Zn-Ag deposits of Cannington (pre mining resources of 43.8Mt @ 11.6% Pb, 4.4% Zn and 538g/t Ag; Bailey 1998) and Pegmont (11 Mt @ 8.4% Pb, 3.7% Zn, 11.5 g/t Ag: Williams, et. al. 1998).
AIC Mines acquired the project as part of the takeover of Demetallica Limited in December 2022. Historical exploration has focus on dominantly base metal targets generated through comprehensive geophysical datasets. AIC’s strategy is to focus on copper-gold through a pipeline of early stage to follow-up drilling stage targets that were not the focus on previous explorers.
AIC completed exploration at the strike extensive Black Rock copper target on the Levuka- Cloncurry fault trends in 2024 and will complete further exploration in 2025.
Eloise Regional Project
AIC Mines holds a 2,000 square kilometres tenement package surrounding the Eloise Copper Mine. The project contains a pipeline of targets from early-stage prospects to known resources within highly endowed geological packages of the Cloncurry Sub-Province.
AIC Mines’ exploration strategy for Eloise is focused on near-mine extensional resource growth within the near mine environment, and the discovery of a transformational mineral resource consisting of high grades (>2% Cu) and significant size (>20Mt), within a 20 kilometre radius of Eloise that would warrant a further expansion to the Eloise processing capacity and hence increased copper production.
Shallow cover has been a barrier to historical exploration leaving numerous targets that range from untested (e.g. Fortune, Clementine) to under-tested (e.g. Bagdad, Iris-Bigfoot) to advanced targets with resource growth potential (e.g Artemis and Sandy Creek).
AIC are testing the pipeline of targets at all stages over the coming 24 months.
North Cloncurry Copper Project
The North Cloncurry Project consists of three tenements located 260 kilometres north of Eloise, capturing the northern portions of the highly endowed Mary Kathleen and Canobie Tectonic Domains. The non-covered portions of these domains contain large copper deposits that were discovered in the 20h century, the covered portions have remained underexplored due to the perception of targeting through cover being difficult but should be considered as no less prospective.
AIC will employ geophysical techniques being trialled and deployed successfully at the Eloise Regional Project to advance targeting in the pursuit of large deposits (+500kt of contained copper) commencing in 2025.
The Marymia Project
The Marymia Project is located approximately 160 kilometres south of Newman in the eastern Gascoyne region of Western Australia and covers approximately 3,600 square kilometres. The project is prospective for both gold and copper deposits and is strategically located within trucking distance of the Plutonic Gold Mine and the DeGrussa Copper Mine.
Exploration by AIC is focused on the discovery of Archean orogenic gold mineralisation, within and on extensions of the highly endowed Plutonic-Marymia Greenstone belt (PMGB), and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) style base-metal mineralisation along strike of the DeGrussa Copper Mine and on the northern margin of the Marymia Inlier.
Copper exploration is focused along the Copper Hills Belt, which extends for over 50 kilometres along the northern margin of the project. The belt lies between the Archean PMGB and the Collier Group and is considered by AIC as belt of Paleoproterozoic age rocks, similar to the nearby Bryah and Yerrida sedimentary basins that are known to host VMS style mineralisation. Historical exploration in the belt has focussed on banded magnetite mineralisation but surface geochemistry, geological mapping, trenching and limited shallow drilling at the Copper Hills Prospect suggests the presence of felsic to mafic metavolcanic rocks associated with copper oxide mineralisation that is considered permissive and indicative of an unrecognised VMS belt. Airborne electromagnetics, surface geochemistry and RC drilling has been completed by AIC to understand the potential of this belt.
Gold exploration is focused on extensions of the Plutonic-Marymia Greenstone belt, which has produced in excess of 6 million ounces of gold. Mapping, surface geochemistry, ground gravity surveys and limited drilling indicates that extensive remnants of Archean greenstone occur within explorable depths and are contained within a broad area historically denoted as granite. While prospects containing gold mineralisation (such as Marymia NE) underscore the potential for gold in granite dominated regions, the perception of ‘barren’ granite means extensions of the inlier – both to the northeast and southwest – are relatively immature from an exploration perspective. Exploration by AIC is targeting this immature portion of the project through geophysical surveys and drilling.
Lamil Project (AIC 50%)
The Lamil Project is located in the Paterson Province of Western Australia, midway between the Telfer gold-copper mine and the Nifty copper mine. It covers an area of 1,000 square kilometres and is prospective for both gold and copper. AIC Mines and Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) each hold a 50% joint venture interest in the project.
The JV is focussed on the discovery of Tier 1 gold and copper deposits similar to the world class Telfer gold-copper mine (approx. 15M oz gold) and the Nifty copper Mine (approx. 1.2Mt of copper).
The project captures prospective rocks that host both the Telfer and Nifty deposits traversed by two regionally extensive, deep penetrating belt parallel NNW trending structures. These are considered as representing a vertically accretive plumbing system that would be important in the transportation and trapping of rising mineralised fluids. The project area is immature from an exploration prepective as the prospective Proterozoic age rocks are obscured by younger Permian age sedimentary sequences considered to be excessive (> 300m) deep. However, exploration by AIC in 2021-2022 have demonstrated that depths of cover over the western and southern area of the project have to be less than 150m on average.
Broad spaced reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaigns in 2020 to 2022 advanced several targets in the southern half of the project. Follow-up diamond drilling at the Lamil Dome target intersecting veining, alteration and anomalous copper values indicating the presence of a hydrothermal systems being developed in the project. Follow-up drilling at the Goodenia target returned extensive anomalous zinc and lead values indicating a second mineralisation style. Other targets such as Sundew and Flame Pea also returned anomalous copper associated with alteration underlying the prospectivity of the shallowly covered southern tenement. In contrast, the northern tenement is completely undrilled with several geophysical targets awaiting testing.
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Peake and Denison Copper Project
The Peake and Denison project is located 750km NNW of Adelaide along the northeastern margin of the Gawler Craton. The project covers approximately 2,500 square kilometres of the Peake and Denison Inlier within four exploration licenses.
AIC is targeting Iron-Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) style mineralisation, similar to Olympic Dam and Carrapateena, on the NE margin of the Gawler under younger age basinal sediments. A maiden drilling program conducted in 2022 tested three coincident magnetic-gravity anomalies: Wentworth; Mawson; and Wills each with a single drill hole. Drilling at the Mawson and Wills targets intersected visible copper mineralisation in strongly brecciated iron oxide’s associated with strong sodic-calcic alteration strengthening the validity of this exploration model.
Data collected from holes in the Peake and Denison Inlier indicate granites and mineralisation related alteration developed at broadly the same age- 1520-1470Ma. While younger than typical Gawler IOCG deposits (~1590Ma), this corresponds with the age range of the Williams – Naraku granite suite in the Cloncurry District. IOCG/ISCG deposits (like Elosie and Jericho) are attributed to emplacement of the Williams-Naraku Suite of granites and thus the inlier has the potential to host copper-gold deposits related to the older 1590Ma age and the younger 1530-1500 Ma age range. Several reconstructions of the eastern Australian contemplate break-up of the late Proterozoic continental margin resulting in the southward movement of the Curnamona Inlier (which hosts Broken Hill). Peake and Denison could conceivably represent a similar southward migrated block once joined to the southern margin of the Mt Isa Province.
Delamerian Base Metals Project
The Delamerian project is an extensive holding in the Delamerian Orogen of western New South Wales. The project consists of an area of 833 square kilometres at the northern end of the Koonenberry Belt, 60 kilometres east of Tibooburra and an area of 2,344 square kilometres in the Loch Lilly-Kars Belt, 55 kilometres southeast of Broken Hill.
The Delamerian Orogen comprises Late Neoproterozoic to Ordovician rock sequences stretching from southwestern Victoria, through eastern South Australia to northwestern New South Wales. A large portion of the orogen is covered by the younger Murray Basin, which has deterred exploration historically and has limited the understanding of the orogen’s mineral potential. Recent acquisition of large-scale geophysical surveys coupled with stratigraphic drill holes into the basement completed by State and Federal governments in the last 2 years has resulted in a greater understanding of the orogen’s tectonic domains. This has allowed AIC to develop a series of deposit models for applicable to each domain.
The northern tenement covers approximately 50 kilometres of the Koonenberry Belt which is composed of the extension of mafic-ultramafic igneous intrusive suite of the Mt Arrowsmith Volcanics. The mafic-ultramafic suite situated on the margin of the South Australian Craton is considered analogous to settings that host large Ni-Cu -PGE sulphide systems globally (e.g. Albany Fraser Belt in Western Australia and the Circum-Superior Belt in Canada).
The southern tenements cover approximately 150 kilometres of strike of the Loch Lilly-Kars Belt under the shallowing margins of the Murray Basin. The Loch Lilly-Kars Belt is now interpreted as a back-arc basin setting, similar to the Stavely Belt in Victoria and the Mount Read Volcanics in Tasmania and thus permissive for Volcanic Host Massive Sulphide (VHMS) deposits. There is also evidence of felsic high-level subvolcanic intrusions which may also have the potential to develop magnetic related copper-gold deposits.
AIC hold a first mover advantage in this project, holding an extensive and strategic position of the belt southwest of the VHMS endowed Grasmere-Perevil trend. Close-spaced geophysical surveys completed in 2024 have primed the exploration team to generate and define drill targets in 2025.
