Austral Resources Australia Ltd. announced the completion of a maiden Mineral Resource for the Enterprise deposit within EPM 17527 in Austral's Eastern Succession tenement package. The Enterprise deposit was originally discovered and initially drilled out by CST Minerals' Lady Annie Exploration Pty Ltd. ("CST") in 2015 and 2016. Further work planned by CST was not completed due to budget constraints.

Today's maiden Mineral Resource is classified as Inferred and reflects the broad 40m by 120m drill hole spacing. Austral has completed the maiden Mineral Resource estimate originally planned by CST to determine the next phase of resource definition infill drilling. The maiden Mineral Resource estimate, along with preliminary mining studies has indicated the potential for a small sulphide open pit mine with toll treatment potential at one of several regional copper processing mills.

The Enterprise Mineral Resource warrants further work including drilling to test depth potential and infill current drill spacing, metallurgical evaluation and the measurement of density. The Enterprise deposit lies within EPM17527 and is held 100% by Austral. It is 22 km north of the Mount Cuthbert Mine site and 110 km north-northwest of Mount Isa.

It is 6 km west of the Dobbyn mine site and 2 km east of the haul road that connects Mount Watson mine site to the Mount Cuthbert processing centre. Enterprise is within the Eastern Fold belt of the Mount Isa Inlier and is separated from other Austral operations around Lady Annie. The deposit is within ore transport distance to several local copper processing facilities at Mount Cuthbert that processes oxide ore by heap leach and Rocklands and Ernest Henry that process sulphide ore by flotation.

EPM17527 which contains Enterprise lies predominantly within the Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Belt and the Mary Kathleen Zone of the Mount Isa Inlier. The principal deposits in the vicinity are hosted by lithologies assigned to the Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Belt. These include felsic metavolcanic rocks assigned to the Leichhardt Volcanics of Cover Sequence 1. Unconformably overlying the Leichhardt Volcanics is a sequence of regionally metamorphosed sedimentary rocks together with felsic-mafic volcanic rocks assigned to the Tewinga Group (Magna Lynn Meta-basalt and Argylla Formation).

Calcareous sedimentary rocks of Cover Sequence 2 unconformably overlie the Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Belt rocks along the eastern margin of the Tenement. Granitoid rocks of the Kalkadoon Batholith, plus mafic sills and dykes have been emplaced into the Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Belt rocks prior to the deposition of Cover Sequence 2. The known copper mineralisation in the area is confined to shears or dilational zones and are typically developed at structure nodes. In addition, numerous smaller deposits and minor occurrences are spatially associated with the mafic intrusive bodies.

Copper mineralisation occurs within quartz veins, on shear planes and as void fills. It was emplaced during late-D2 to late-D3 time. No mineralisation associated with D1 has been noted in the area.

The deposits are predominantly small and oxidised to depths of up to 80 m. The depth of oxidation is generally related to the size of the shear or structure hosting mineralisation. Typically, the deposits are zoned from malachite/azurite and/or chrysocolla at surface to chalcocite, cuprite, tenorite, and native copper in the transition zone, to chalcopyrite at depth. The Enterprise copper mineralised zone at surface comprises malachite in quartz veins and a highly sheared (20° fabric) magnetic mafic unit (most likely an intrusive) over 250m, at the NW-SE trending contact zone between interpreted Leichhardt volcanic rocks to the SW and Kalkadoon granodiorite to the NE.

This contact was the prime focus for the RC drill programme. The area surrounding the Enterprise Cu mineralisation has extensive sheet-wash cover obscuring most of the geology and potential mineralisation, limiting surface mapping. Available outcrop mapping.