Tethyan shines up Sor Baroot discovery

Australian copper explorer Tethyan Copper (TYC-A) has announced a new discovery and calculated an additional resource on its Reko Diq property in western Pakistan, possibly with hopes of luring a white knight in its takeover battle with Hong Kong merchant bank Crosby Capital.

The announcements are the latest shots from Tethyan in a takeover battle with Crosby Capital. Crosby has offered A64 per share for Tethyan, which values the company at A$101 million. Crosby’s mailing to shareholders should be made shortly, but in anticipation of a better bid, Tethyan shares are trading around A74. Tethyan has asked shareholders to take no action on the offer.

The new discovery, at Sor Baroot, 20 km west of the main Reko Diq copper-porphyry project, returned a 261-metre intersection in drill hole SB-019, with average grades of 0.34% copper and 0.19 gram gold per tonne. The intersection included a near-surface interval of 45 metres of oxide material, which graded 0.66% copper and 0.31 gram gold.

Three other holes on Sor Baroot intersected lower grades, one cutting 99 metres grading 0.29% copper, another 282 metres grading 0.15%, and the third 180 metres grading 0.12%. All carried low gold credits. Two of the holes were drilled from the north of the Sor Baroot target, while the other, like SB-019, was drilled north toward the target from the south.

The company has also calculated a preliminary resource for the H8 copper deposit. The resource, all classified as inferred, amounts to 270 million tonnes at grades of 0.4% copper and 0.2 gram gold per tonne.

Drilling at the H8 copper target, Tethyan intersected significant widths of copper mineralization in 12 holes. Copper grades are generally in the 0.3% to 0.5% range, with gold credits mainly 0.1 to 0.25 gram per tonne. Altogether results from 19 holes, on centres about 100 metres by 100 metres, went into the resource calculation, which had a cutoff grade of 0.3% copper.

H8 lies between the property’s main resource, the Western Porphyries, and the Tanjeel copper deposit (also called H4), where an indicated resource of 152 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper has been defined. Feasibility work has now identified a 129-million-tonne probable reserve that grades 0.7% copper at Tanjeel.

An open pit there would be a starter project for a larger operation based on the Western Porphyries, which have an inferred resource of 729 million tonnes running 0.64% copper and 0.39 gram gold per tonne.

Recent drilling at the Western Porphyries intersected 511 metres of mineralization with grades of 0.66% copper and 0.42 gram gold per tonne in one hole, and 499 metres grading 0.65% copper and 0.42 gram gold per tonne in another.

Tethyan has also drilled another prospect, H35, just northeast of the Western Porphyries. There, a drill hole intersected 206 metres grading 0.2% copper and 0.45 gram gold per tonne.

Tethyan has completed a 75% earn-in on the project from BHP Billiton (BHP-N). Billiton retains a clawback right on the property, excluding the H4 area.