Isa North Copper-Gold Project
The Isa North Project comprises three exploration licences and one application covering an underexplored 976km2 belt located along the projected northern extension of the mineralised Mt Gordon fault extension. Several large deposits lie on, or adjacent, to this fault system, including the Mt Isa, Mt Oxide and Gunpowder copper deposits held by 29Metals (ASX:29M), which hosts five known orebodies, three currently in production.
The Isa North project was identified during a broader review of the Mt Isa Mineral Province undertaken by SER in our search for the next major copper-gold discovery and was subsequently acquired from Newcrest (ASX:NCM) in 2021. The project, which formed part of Newcrest’s Under-Cover Strategy [1], has multiple favourable geological characteristics which make it highly prospective for IOCG mineralisation including a major mineralised fault zone, evidence of extensive hydrothermal alteration undercover, and numerous significant magnetic and gravity anomalies. Newcrest identified priority targets based on structural position, geophysical signature, depth to basement and target size before completing nine drill holes at four target areas in 2018. At the Lorraine North target located on EPM26439, drillhole INMD001 intersected IOCG alteration and pathfinder elements indicating the outer halo of a potential IOCG system and the drillhole could be classified as a “near miss”. SER is focused on completing a diamond drill program on two new targets in 2024, following up on the Newcrest near misses.
The Isa North project area has drawn the attention of a number of major mining companies in the search for Tier-1 Copper deposits as indicated in the recent tenement map below.
[1] See NCM December 2018 Quarterly Report: https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20190130/pdf/4425db3cb7sv06.pdf
