True North Copper says recent assays results from the first three diamond holes of its 2026 program point to broad copper-cobalt-silver mineralisation at Aquila, its recent discovery within the Mt Oxide project in northwest Queensland.

The headline hit jumped straight out of the starting gates, with the first drill hole boring through a 35m intersection assaying 0.82 per cent copper, 0.04 per cent cobalt and 3.4 grams per tonne (g/t) silver from 32m, including a significantly higher grade 9.2m section going 2.21 per cent copper and 4m at 4.08 per cent copper.

Following up, a second strong intercept came from the third hole in the early drilling series, delivering 32m at 0.70 per cent copper, 0.06 per cent cobalt and 7.2g/t silver from 181m, including 9.4m at 2.04 per cent copper. Significantly, the result also extended the nearby parallel Acanthis trend 250m northwards to an estimated strike length of 500m.

The Acanthis trend is a defined parallel exploration target and prospect that has already seen previous drilling. It is one of three primary mineralised trends of copper-cobalt-silver mineralisation at Mt Oxide and runs parallel to the company’s major Aquila discovery.

The result was complemented by the second hole of the series, which added another broad zone of mineralisation, presenting 36m at 0.34 per cent copper, 0.09 per cent cobalt and 1.5g/t silver from 136m, including 6m at 0.75 per cent copper, which has helped to define the eastern extent of the Aquila system.

Management says the results validate its geological model at Aquila, where drilling and geophysics have already sketched out a mineralised system over an estimated 1.8 kilometres of interpreted strike which, at this stage, remains open along strike and at depth.

The company is pitching Mt Oxide as an emerging copper district built around the established Vero resource and its recent Aquila discovery. Vero already hosts an impressive 15.03 million tonnes at 1.46 per cent copper and 10.59g/t silver, coupled with a separate 9.15Mt cobalt resource grading 0.23 per cent cobalt.

This means that Vero gives True North a solid foundation resource while it works to grow Aquila into a second meaningful copper-silver-cobalt system.

In recent presentations, the company has also highlighted a prospective 10km-long northeast-trending mineralised structural corridor along the greater Mt Oxide system. The Apollo, Acanthis, Ivena North and Rhea zones are among the company’s current priority targets within that corridor, bookended between the Vero and Aquila deposits.

The corridor is part of the broader Mt Gordon corridor, which is hosted along a major regional, crustal-scale structure known as the Dorman Fault trend.

These diamond drilling results represent another important step in growing the Mt Oxide Project into a potential standalone copper development opportunity. The drilling program continues to demonstrate the scale of the Aquila mineral system, now defined over more than 1.8 kilometres of interpreted strike, while confirming broad mineralisation with well-developed higher-grade zones.

The developing understanding from combined mapping, geophysics and geochemistry looks increasingly to have confirmed Aquila may not be a standalone deposit but rather potentially one of a number of related mineralised structures occupying the broader corridor.

This understanding is supported by the new diamond drilling which has given the company a better look under the hood. The holes show a broad, structurally-controlled stockwork and sheeted-vein system, with higher-grade zones linked to stronger veining, hydrothermal breccias and copper-rich sulphides which include the minerals chalcocite, covellite and bornite.

These minerals are all important copper sulphides. They contain copper by weight in the range between 63 per cent for bornite, 66 per cent for covellite and 80 per cent for chalcocite. They are also all genetically linked within copper deposits, frequently forming through hydrothermal processes or via the chemical alteration of primary minerals in the “supergene enrichment zone” at or near the water table.

True North says further assays are still to come from the Aquila, Aquila North, Apollo and Acanthis targets over coming months, giving the market a steady run of news flow as drilling continues to test extensions and refine the company’s geological model.

With three compelling diamond hits now in the bag and a swag of targets still waiting their turn for further testing, Aquila is starting to look less like a one-off discovery and more like part of a real district-scale copper camp. If the next analytical batches keep landing the way these first three holes have, True North may be off to the races with a busy second half ahead of it at Mt Oxide.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au