Alice Queen poised for diamond drilling of highest ranked porphyry targets at Mendooran

Alice Queen Ltd (ASX:AQX) is poised to diamond drill its two highest-ranking copper-gold porphyry targets within the Mendooran Project in Central West New South Wales. The exploratory drilling program will comprise two deep 700-metre diamond core holes into the targets at Mendooran. Notably, Mendooran lies on the Molong Volcanic Belt (MVB) that hosts Newcrest Mining Ltd’s world-class Cadia copper-gold porphyry deposit as well as Alkane Resources Limited’s recent Kaiser-Boda discovery. “Completed substantial body of work” Alice Queen managing director Andrew Buxton said: “For four years we have been progressively moving towards this moment. “The company has completed a substantial body of work from both an access and geological perspective that is compelling us to now drill these two targets at Mendooran. “Our previous JV with Newcrest enabled us to find and rank the potential scale of the targets. “Then conscientious work over several years resulted in us gaining access to this previously completely unexplored area of the MVB. “Finally, and importantly, our recent exploration drilling in the area has given us the confidence to head further north to not only drill near the cross-arc structure that exists at the target location, but to apply for an additional exploration licence. “This new application (ELA6298) flanks both our western and eastern boundaries. “We couldn’t be more excited to get the drill bit spinning and to finally see what’s down there.” Highest-ranked targets Alice Queen’s Mendooran exploration drill program has been developed by chief technical advisor John Holliday, who is the co-discoverer of Newcrest’s Cadia deposit. The two drill holes will target near an NW-SE cross arc structure with these type of structures also associated with the Cadia and Kaiser-Boda deposits. Notably, these two targets are large-scale, porphyry targets and are the company’s highest-ranked targets on the Molong Volcanic Belt. Projects along the Molong Volcanic Belt and other parts of the Macquarie Arc. Next steps Alice Queen is planning to test this high priority area by drilling in the vicinity of this cross-arc structure at two sites that are already permitted. Promisingly, this drilling will be co-funded by the NSW New Frontiers Co-Operative Drilling grant. Drilling is expected to begin this quarter subject to sufficiently dry ground conditions. - Ephrems Joseph