Copper is one of the few battery metals to go unscathed in 2024, and 29 Metals (ASX: 29M) is one of the few copper producers at this year’s Diggers & Dealers.
29 Metals boss James Palmer said he was excited by the copper opportunity, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing for his first 100-days at the helm.
“We have some well-publicised challenges, and some not-so-well-publicised opportunities,” he said.
The company has two assets – Golden Grove in WA, and Capricorn in Mt Isa – with about 2 million tonnes of copper in the ground between them. Mr Palmer reckons there is plenty of potential to find more.
Of the three priority deposits at Golden Grove – Xantho extended, Gossan Valley and Cervantes – Xantho Extended tops the list.
“The ramp up of Xantho Extended has been some time coming,” he said.
“Now that Xantho Extended has arrived, the focus is to increase the contributions to feed to the mill and establishing that steady, consistent drum beat of tonnes to the mine.”
But it is Gossan Valley with the exploration upside.
“How big could this be? We’re certainly looking forward to finding out,” Mr Palmer said.
“[Golden Grove] started production in 1990, so 30-odd years to date… we think this asset has a lot of life to come.
“After three decades, the geos think they’ve got a pretty good handle on the system at Golden Grove.”
There’s not a lot companies can do about significant rainfall events, and Capricorn has copped a lot of them. After the onslaught of bad weather from January to March, the decision was made to suspend operations March 2024.
“There’s enormous value in the ground and on the surface,” he said.
“There is also a lot of water on the surface at Capricorn Copper. Not great. But there are a lot of things at Capricorn Copper that are great. Also on the surface, we have a plan to support a future restart.
“It leads directly to 64.8 million tonnes at 1.8% copper, within approximately a 1900km2 tenement position in the Mt Isa province. So the size of the prize is significant.”
And the company is actively looking for more.
“The last two drilling campaigns have shown, there’s a lot more to this resource than we see today,” he said.
Touch base with the Purple team. Peter Klinger and Gerard McArtney are in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and will be at Diggers & Dealers for the entirety of the conference.
