QMines Hits 44m at 1.03% Copper at Mt Chalmers With 19 Holes Still Pending

Mt Chalmers drilling delivers broad copper zones and high-grade polymetallic hits

QMines (ASX: QML) has reported a standout 44m copper intersection from hole 26MCRD005 at its 100%-owned Mt Chalmers copper-gold project near Rockhampton, Queensland, as part of the company’s 10,000m multi-rig drilling campaign supporting the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). This latest batch covers six drill holes, with 19 holes totalling 2,314m of assays still pending and two rigs continuing unabated, pointing to strong news flow through to year end.

Drill results in detail — copper, gold, silver, zinc and lead across six holes

Broad copper zones expand the eastern pit margin

Three holes targeted the copper-rich stringer zones on and adjacent to the eastern side of the Mt Chalmers open pit, each delivering meaningful copper intersections.

26MCRD005 returned the standout result from this batch:

• 44m @ 1.03% Cu, 0.15g/t Au and 2.3g/t Ag from 103m
• Including 10m @ 2.20% Cu, 0.35g/t Au and 4.7g/t Ag from 103m
• Including 2m @ 5.52% Cu, 0.97g/t Au and 9.3g/t Ag from 108m

The 44m intercept sits above the current Mt Chalmers Mineral Resource global copper grade of 0.75% Cu, reinforcing the quality of this intersection relative to the broader resource.

Earlier holes from this same campaign produced drill results surpassing block model grades at Mt Chalmers, a pattern that, when consistent across multiple intercepts, has direct implications for resource model confidence and the copper grade inputs used in DFS economic modelling.

26MCDD011, drilled approximately 57m to the south, returned multiple copper zones before being abandoned at 150.5m while still in mineralisation after the drill rods became stuck:

• 7m @ 1.02% Cu from 111m; including 2m @ 2.53% Cu
• 24m @ 0.46% Cu from 121m; including 1m @ 2.64% Cu
• Final 0.5m sample returning 2.05% Cu at end of hole

Mineralisation below the end of hole remains untested at this location.

26MCDD014, drilled further west, intersected chalcopyrite and pyrite stringers:

• 9m @ 0.69% Cu from 86m
• Including 1m @ 2.45% Cu from 94m

Shallow high-grade polymetallic lens adds multi-commodity upside

Two holes intersected the upper sulphide horizons, revealing high-grade polymetallic mineralisation that extends the deposit’s value beyond copper alone.

26MCDD013 hit a semi-massive sulphide unit at shallow depth:

• 1.5m @ 11.73% Zn, 6.85% Pb, 1.35% Cu, 7.11g/t Au and 60.6g/t Ag from 53.9m

Core recovery through the sulphide interval in 26MCDD013 was poor, so the reported downhole thickness should be treated with appropriate caution pending further drilling.

26MCDD012 returned both a shallow precious and base-metal zone and a broader deeper zinc-lead horizon:

• 5m @ 0.99g/t Au, 55.5g/t Ag, 1.84% Zn and 1.09% Pb from 45m
• Including 2m @ 1.91g/t Au and 118g/t Ag from 45m
• 17.4m @ 1.55% Zn, 0.63% Pb and 12.7g/t Ag from 116.6m

Core recovery through the deeper zinc-lead interval in 26MCDD012 averaged 62%, and the grade and width of that zone should therefore be treated cautiously pending further drilling.

What is a Definitive Feasibility Study — and why does drilling still matter at this stage?

A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) is the most rigorous technical and economic assessment a mining company completes before making a decision to build a mine. It pulls together every material input — geology, resource estimates, mine design, metallurgical process, infrastructure, capital costs, and operating costs — into a bankable document that underpins project financing and construction planning.

You might expect that drilling stops once a project reaches DFS stage, but that is rarely the case. The Mt Chalmers campaign is specifically designed as a geometallurgical drilling program, meaning the core it generates is not just sampled for grade — it is physically used for metallurgical testwork, including comminution (how hard the ore is to grind) and flotation studies (how well the copper and gold can be recovered). These are essential DFS inputs that require fresh, carefully selected rock samples from across the deposit.

What makes this campaign particularly efficient is that the holes are delivering strong assay results at the same time as producing geometallurgical core. For a DFS-stage developer like QMines, that dual outcome means the drilling is simultaneously refining the mine plan and extending the known mineralised system. It also means investors get a steady stream of material results from a project where the mineralisation is already known, resourced, and moving towards a production decision — a materially different risk profile from early-stage exploration.

What’s next — barge drilling, pending assays, and the path to DFS

The next major result set is expected from a barge drilling program beneath the flooded historic Mt Chalmers open pit, an area not drilled since 1982. The anticipated results from this program represent one of the more closely watched near-term catalysts for the project.

The barge program involves deploying a floating drill rig beneath Mt Chalmers pit to access ground that has sat untested since the historic open-cut operation flooded, meaning any intersections would represent genuinely new data on the system’s down-plunge continuity.

Key upcoming milestones include:

1. Barge drilling results from beneath the flooded historic pit — a significant untested area within the known system.
2. Assay results from 19 holes covering 2,314m of completed drilling still pending at announcement date.
3. Integration of new drilling into the geological and resource models as the DFS program progresses.
4. Comminution and flotation testwork results from geometallurgical core sampled across this program, to be reported separately when available.

To provide context for what is at stake, the current Mt Chalmers Ore Reserve stands at 9.6Mt total (Proved 5.1Mt @ 0.72% Cu; Probable 4.5Mt @ 0.57% Cu). Combined with the Develin Creek, Woods Shaft, and Mt Mackenzie projects, total combined Resources across all four deposits amount to approximately 22Mt.

Tom Bartschi, Exploration Manager, QMines

“These results continue to build confidence in the scale and continuity of the Mt Chalmers mineralised system…

The high-grade zinc, lead, gold and silver mineralisation intersected in 26MCDD013 and 26MCDD012 also reinforces the polymetallic nature of the deposit and the value of the upper sulphide horizons.

This drilling was primarily designed to support the DFS geometallurgical program, so achieving these geological results while also generating fresh core for metallurgical testwork is a great outcome. The new data will now be incorporated into the geological and resource models as the DFS drilling program continues.”

With two rigs still turning and a substantial assay backlog due to report through to year end, QMines remains positioned as an advancing DFS-stage developer with consistent news flow expected across the months ahead.

Ready to Dig Deeper Into the Mt Chalmers Copper-Gold Project?

QMines’ 10,000m DFS drilling campaign continues to deliver broad copper zones and high-grade polymetallic hits above the current resource grade, with 19 holes and over 2,300m of assays still pending — alongside highly anticipated barge drilling results from beneath the historic flooded pit.

Explore the full scope of the Mt Chalmers project, upcoming catalysts, and QMines’ advancing DFS timeline by visiting the QMines company profile on Discovery Alert.