Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON: RIO) subsidiary
Kennecott Exploration has kicked
off its drilling campaign at Broadway Gold Mining’s Madison copper-gold
project, located in the Butte region of Montana, US.
The move follows an earn-in
agreement between the two companies, signed in April, under which Kennecott can
acquire a 55% stake in the property by spending $5 million on exploration within
five years, including a minimum $1 million in the first year.
Initial work contemplates three
drill holes targeting an area displaying multi-element soil and rock chip
geochemical anomalies, historic prospects, strong induced polarization
anomalies and porphyry drill intercepts, as well as four holes targeting skarn
mineralization.
Broadway Gold Mining, a Canadian
explorer based in Ontario, recently acquired
an 85% interest in a land package in Namibia, as part of the
company’s strategy to identify rich deposits.
The Tsumeb mining camp is known to host both high-grade polymetallic deposits and stratabound copper/silver/cobalt deposits. It also features deposits of gold, vanadium, germanium and uranium.