Aeon told the ASX this week that after a short delay awaiting a road permit, the rig is in place and diamond core drilling of the first hole is well underway. 

Aeon plan around 30,000 metres of drilling with the focus of the 2018 diamond core and RC drilling program to target the continuous high-grade copper-cobalt PY3 zone from a depth of 120m in the current resources and along the significant strike. 

The first hole will be drilled close to the exploration camp to quickly address any teething issues with the rig.

Subsequent holes will then be stepped out west along strike of the current resource. 

The other two rigs are expected to arrive on site over the next two weeks with drilling to continue on a 24/7 basis for around six months.

Aeon plans a tenement wide seismic survey in May, part funded by the Queensland Government.

The survey will use the signatures of known mineralisation to locate new drill targets for testing along 20km of the Fish River Fault.

Aeon’s Managing Director, Hamish Collins, said the 2018 drilling program was one of the important elements in moving the Walford Creek copper cobalt project to development.

“Work has continued over the last three months on metallurgical processing, recoveries and improving the project flowsheet and re setting the project parameters to reflect a larger, longer life project based on the high-grade copper cobalt resource announced in January 2018,” Mr Collins said.

“As the results of this work are announced, I am confident Walford Creek will further improve its status as the premier Copper-Cobalt project in Australia.”

The Walford Creek project is north of Century mine, about 300km north-west of Mount Isa.