- Copper M&A boom in Queensland’s North West Minerals Province turns attention to ASX explorers
- Breakthrough Minerals has an established resource and exploration upside in the region
- 10,000m drilling campaign is now targeting further resource growth
Mergers and acquisitions have long been synonymous with the mining industry, as established producers snap up smaller fish to expand production or consolidate operations around existing infrastructure.
That appetite has been evident in the copper sector, with miners scrambling to secure supply of a metal expected to play a pivotal role in the global energy transition.
BHP (ASX:BHP) has been at the forefront of this trend, expanding its South Australian copper portfolio through a $10 billion acquisition of OZ Minerals in 2023.
It also teamed up with Lundin Mining to acquire Canadian group Filo Corp in 2025 and form the 50/50 Vicuña joint venture, which holds the Filo del Sol and Josemaria copper projects in Argentina and Chile.
But the hunt for copper is not limited to billion-dollar transactions involving the world’s biggest miners.
In Queensland, a wave of dealmaking has swept through the North West Minerals Province.
Harmony Gold acquired the development-stage Eva project for US$230 million in late 2022.
Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) moved to acquire Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB) this July in a $213 million transaction, adding the Greater Duchess project to its regional portfolio.
Austral Resources (ASX:AR1) joined the pack earlier this month after agreeing an $81 million deal to secure Hammer Metals (ASX:HMX).
This flurry of activity could now be putting other regional ASX explorers on the radar, including Breakthrough Minerals (ASX:BTM).
The company recently acquired a large landholding that includes a 200,000t contained copper equivalent resource and extensive exploration ground.
Breakthrough is now targeting resource growth as a 10,000m drill blitz pumps out the metres in one of Australia’s hottest copper M&A regions.
Prolific copper province
The North West Minerals Province came to prominence in the 1930s with the start of large-scale copper mining at Mt Isa.
Today, Evolution’s Ernest Henry mine is one of the district’s leading operations, while Glencore closed its Mount Isa copper mines last year.
Ernest Henry churned out nearly 50,000 tonnes of copper and more than 70,000 ounces of gold in FY25, with mining forecast to continue until at least 2040.
Nearby, AIC Mines’ (ASX:A1M) Eloise project has produced more than 370,000 tonnes of copper and about 200,000 ounces of gold since its commissioning in 1996.
The operations demonstrate the scale and longevity of mining in the province.
The region also has the infrastructure and processing capacity that can make smaller discoveries appealing to established producers.
“The Northwest Minerals Province is extremely well known and obviously runs with a rich and deep history,” Breakthrough Minerals managing director Nigel Broomham told Stockhead.
“It’s super well endowed, and what makes it so exciting is it has a bunch of existing current infrastructure there that’s available.
“So, we don’t have to go out and raise hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to build out the supply chain throughout this region.”
Broomham also pointed to copper’s role in the district’s renewed momentum.
“I think globally the long-term fundamentals on copper are incredibly compelling,” he said.
“We’ve got electrification, renewable energy, grid expansion, electric vehicles, battery storage, AI, et cetera.
“They all require a lot of copper.
“At the same time, we’ve seen very little investment in exploration and those new discoveries just simply haven’t been made.
“When you overlay those global fundamentals on what’s happening in Northwest Queensland, it’s a compelling story.
“The region’s experiencing a real resurgence, seeing huge dollars being invested into processing infrastructure, mining companies committing to new developments, and seeing a huge increase in M&A activities.”
Predators circling
Recent M&A has demonstrated the appetite for copper assets in the North West Minerals Province.
Harmony Gold’s acquisition of Eva in 2022 gave the South African gold producer exposure to a 366Mt resource grading 0.4% copper.
Its board approved construction of the project last November, with first production targeted for the second half of 2028.
More recently, Evolution added Greater Duchess to its regional portfolio through the proposed acquisition of Carnaby.
Greater Duchess hosts a 29.2Mt resource grading 1.3% Cu and 0.2g/t Au and lies near Ernest Henry.
Evolution believes the deal could add about 10,000 tonnes of annual copper production by leveraging Ernest Henry’s existing infrastructure and spare mill capacity.
Austral Resources is also expanding its copper footprint in the province after outbidding Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) for Hammer Metals.
The planned acquisition adds five copper-gold resources with further exploration potential to its portfolio, including the Kalman resource of 39Mt at 1.07% CuEq.
Austral already operates the Lady Annie mine north of Mount Isa, along with a pipeline of other projects at various stages of development.
Together, these deals show why established copper resources, exploration upside and access to existing infrastructure can appeal to acquirers.
Breakthrough Minerals is one ASX player that ticks several of those boxes.
Map showing Hammer Metals’ tenure and significant projects in the North West Minerals Province. Pic: Hammer Metals
The Breakthrough opportunity
Breakthrough is a district-scale explorer focused on its recently acquired North Queensland copper-gold project.
Its 952km2 landholding, including more than 21km2 of mining leases, comes with an established resource base and infrastructure in a region already dotted with operating mines and processing plants.
Across four project areas – Hazel Creek, Barbara, Mt Colin Mine and Soldiers Cap-Cloncurry – Breakthrough hosts a combined resource of 18.8Mt at 1.07% CuEq for 200,000 tonnes of contained copper equivalent.
The package also includes a 70-man camp, mining equipment and a drill core facility in Cloncurry, while third-party processing infrastructure includes mills at Mt Isa and Eloise.
Map showing Breakthrough’s tenure in proximity to significant projects and mills. Pic: Breakthrough Minerals
At Hazel Creek, the Turpentine and Turpentine South-Eight Mile Creek North deposits combine for about 124,000 tonnes of contained CuEq, while Barbara adds another 63,000 tonnes.
Both areas sit along proven mineralised corridors with multi-million-tonne discoveries.
Turpentine is interpreted as an IOCG system geologically akin to Eva, which is being developed about 20km away.
The smaller Mt Colin Mine adds 13,000 tonnes of contained metal from a resource of 600,000 tonnes at 2.13% CuEq.
Management believes there is further scope to grow the resource and find new areas of copper-gold mineralisation across the broader project.
“We control a large district-scale copper-gold portfolio in one of Australia’s premier copper provinces,” Broomham said.
“We’ve got an existing resource base of just over 200,000 tonnes of contained copper built in the ground, and we’ve got multiple opportunities to expand that with the drill bit.
“The strategy is pretty straightforward for us.
“We continue to grow our copper inventory through the drill bit and position the company to benefit from what we believe will be a very strong long-term market for copper.”
Drilling for growth
Breakthrough is now targeting further resource growth through a 10,000m drilling campaign initially focused on Barbara and Hazel Creek.
Barbara sits on a granted mining lease, with drilling targeting open down-plunge extensions beneath two historical pits and other nearby prospects.
Diamond drilling commenced in April, testing areas beneath past intercepts including 17m at 2.5% Cu from 225m and 5m at 3.8% Cu from 286m.
Results from the first three holes of the new campaign delivered 35m at 1.40% CuEq from 204m, 36m at 0.54% CuEq from 343m, and 18m at 0.90% CuEq from 100m.
Subsequent assays confirmed that the mineralised system extends beyond the resource boundary and remains open at depth, with one hole extending mineralisation to at least 575m below surface.
The initial 4000m campaign at Barbara has now been wrapped up, with the rig moving to Hazel Creek for drilling at Turpentine.
Breakthrough plans to return to Barbara later this year to test northern extensions of the Barbara Shear Zone and other nearby prospects.
More broadly, the company sees substantial exploration upside across its landholding.
“At the moment we’re doing resource expansion drilling,” Broomham said.
“Outside of that space, we’ve got dozens of walk-up drilling targets to go test with the drill bit, so we need to work through those priorities.
“We’ve got a fair idea of what our favourites are, and we’ll step through those and systematically go test them.”
District-scale potential
A 4000m campaign at Turpentine kicked off in July, targeting northern and down-dip extensions to the current MRE, which remains open.
The program is testing for mineralisation below and along strike from historical intercepts, including 21m at 1.5% Cu and 0.2g/t Au from 167m, and 13m at 2.1% Cu and 1.1g/t Au from 136m.
Gravity inversion modelling and magnetics support a north-plunging mineralised system, helping define the current drill targets.
First assays from the campaign confirmed high-grade mineralisation on the interpreted down-plunge extension.
One hole returned 31m at 0.52% CuEq from 210m, including 7m at 1.02% CuEq.
Another pierced 16m at 1.30% CuEq from 180m, including 6m at 2.18% CuEq.
A third hole delivered 19m at 1.03% CuEq from 216m.
Drilling at Turpentine is ongoing, with assays from other completed holes now pending.
Breakthrough is also planning 2500m of RC drilling to test a series of priority targets at Hazel Creek, as part of its broader 10,000m drill program this year.
The drill blitz could unlock further upside for the company as M&A activity in the North West Minerals Province heats up.
“There’s clearly a land and resource consolidation story developing across Northwest Queensland,” Broomham said.
“Australian quality copper exposure is genuinely rare, and we think Breakthrough gives us exactly that.
“We’ve got a district-scale copper-gold project in the world-class region, we’ve already got a great existing resource base, multiple avenues to grow that base, and a fully funded dual-program turning now.”
Breakthrough remains well funded for its exploration push after raising $5 million through a placement in May.
It ended the June quarter with about $5.5 million in the coffers.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Breakthrough Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
