Great Western Exploration Limited has entered into a conditional farm-in agreement with Moffat Resources Pty Ltd to acquire up to a 100% interest in the McKinlay Copper-Gold and Silver Project in Queensland.

Under the terms of the conditional arrangement, Great Western can initially earn a 51% interest in the project by funding $500,000 in exploration expenditure. The company can secure an additional 29% interest by spending a further $2 million on exploration. To achieve full 100% ownership, Great Western has the option to pay the vendors up to $2 million in cash, shares, or a combination of both. The transaction requires shareholder approval before it can proceed.

Located 80 kilometres south-east of Cloncurry, the McKinlay Project expands Great Western’s portfolio to 11 assets, introducing its first copper-gold and silver project in Queensland alongside its existing Western Australian holdings. The property consists of two tenements, EPM27957 and EPM27958, which have seen little to no on-ground exploration over the past 25 years. Previous historical work completed in the 1980s and 1990s by prior holders generated a database of airborne and ground geophysics.

That historical database defined several coincident magnetic and gravity targets, including Deere, Ventura, and Dylans in the northern area, alongside silver-lead targets in the southern zone. Past drilling at Deere intersected 28 metres grading 0.78 g/t gold and 632 ppm copper from 78 metres depth, sitting beneath approximately 30 metres of cover. At Dylans, past wide-spaced reverse circulation drilling returned 66 metres at 514 ppm copper from 50 metres, including a higher-grade interval of 14 metres at 1,130 ppm copper from 72 metres.

Following completion and necessary approvals, Great Western plans to deploy an aggressive exploration campaign, utilizing air core and reverse circulation drilling alongside geophysical surveys to refine existing targets for testing.

The regional exploration landscape received a recent boost when AIC Mines Limited reported an intersection of 46.4 metres at 3.6% copper and 1.0g/t gold at the Brumby prospect located 26 kilometres south-west of McKinlay within the same stratigraphic sequence.

Read the full announcement: GTE to earn into highly prospective McKinlay Cu Au Project