Castillo Copper Ltd (ASX:CCZ), a base metal explorer primarily focused on copper across Australia and Zambia, has secured an in-principle agreement with Queensland-based Depco Drilling to appoint them as the lead contractor for the upcoming Mt Oxide drilling campaigns. The agreement is subject to Depco’s lawyers reviewing the agreement along with shareholder approval at a soon to be announced General Meeting of shareholders.
Depco Drilling would be lead contractor for the upcoming reverse cycle (RC) and diamond drill (DD) campaigns at the Big One Deposit and Arya Prospect within the Mt Oxide Project. Depco Drilling is a privately owned Queensland based group, which has been operating since the early 1960s and has significant experience across multiple projects in the Mt Isa Basin area.
In a major validation for the Mt Oxide Project, Depco Drilling have agreed, subject to Depco legal review and CCZ shareholder approval, to accept a material proportion of their fees in CCZ shares, with a six-month voluntary escrow period.
Mobilisation plans are now being ramped up and all necessary logistics are in place, as both CCZ and Depco Drilling are working towards an expedited timeline. As a Queensland based group, Depco Drilling has drilling equipment and teams within the state boarders that are ready and available to deploy relatively fast.
The RC drilling campaign for the Arya Prospect comprises circa 3,432 m over 14 drill-holes, within an area ~1,500 m by ~1,000 m, with targets near surface and deeper geophysical anomalies. For the Big One Deposit, there are two parts to the upcoming drilling program: a 4,385 m RC drilling campaign, over 35 drill-holes, which will focus on a strike zone (~580 m by ~120 m) to test for mineralisation from ~26 m up to ~190 m below surface; and an incremental 160 m diamond drilling campaign, targeting two drill-holes that are testing primarily for shallow mineralisation from ~26 m up to ~52 m below surface.
In lead up to the commencement of the drilling campaign, the geology team –which have been on site for several weeks now –are due to re-visit the Arya Prospect for a closer review and peg drill sites.
“The process to select the right drilling contractor has been thorough, as the Board was keen to select a group that had a strong Queensland presence and experience in the Mt Isa Basin. Depco Drilling will use two types of drill rigs to undertake work at the Big One Deposit and Arya Prospect. Moreover, this equipment is capable of diamond drilling and going down several hundred metres to test geophysical anomalies.”
Simon Paull, Managing Director of Castillo Copper, commented: “After a thorough process, we are delighted to reach an agreement in principle with Depco Drilling to spearhead our inaugural drilling campaign to the Big One Deposit and Arya Prospect within the Mt Oxide Project. This is a transformative development which puts CCZ squarely on the path to achieve its strategic objective to evolve into a mid-tier copper group.”
Ged Hall, UK Director of Castillo Copper, said: “This is an excellent result, as we now have an in-principle agreement with a specialist Queensland based driller that knows the Mt Oxide region well. Further, after all the hard work our geology team have done evaluating the Big One Deposit and Arya Prospect, we are now heading towards the pointy end of the exploration journey for these priority targets.”
