Pegmont has successfully established assets in the Mount Isa region at Pegmont, Mt Kelly and New Hope. and have announced another project will commence this year at the Templeton exploration area west of Mount Isa.

Mr Armstrong told the Brisbane AGM last month Pegmont has decided to explore for Mount Isa-style copper and gold deposits because of their experience in North West Queensland and its prospectivity for major base metal deposits.

“We commissioned a highly regarded experienced geologist Jacob Rebek who suggested we look at an area west of Mount Isa which has similar geology to the well-explored Eastern Succession, but is under alluvial cover and therefore relatively underexplored,” Mr Armstrong said.

“He identified several interesting prospects, which resulted in an application for an area we call the Templeton prospect.”

Mr Armstrong said Templeton was a 248 sq km block 60km west of Isa and Pegmont had signed a native title agreement with the Indjalandi-Dhidhanu Aboriginal Corporation on April 5.

The Mines Department has granted Pegmont an exploration permit for five years.

“Geological settings in Templeton is similar to that in areas where copper mining as been undertaken, notably Mount Kelly and Lady Annie,” Mr Armstrong said.

“Magnetic anomalies in the area are similar to those in Mount Kelly and Lady Annie.”

He said they have started by reprocessing previous magnetic and radiometric date and applying 3D processing to generate drill target areas.

Mr Armstrong said Pegmont had also signed an option agreement with Chinova Resources Cloncurry for an option on the New Hope project. “The deal makes sense because New Hope is a small project and Chinova holds the surrounding ground,” he said.