Rio Tinto breaks ground at Madison copper-gold project in Montana

Cecilia Jamasmie | June 24, 2019 | 9:56 am News Top Companies USA Copper Gold

Aerial view of Madison copper-gold project. (Image courtesy of Broadway Gold Mining)

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.

Madison is located in the heart of Montana’s prolific copper-gold belt, just 38km southeast of Butte’s billion-dollar epicenter and the world-renowned Butte copper mine. (*Image courtesy of Broadway Gold Mining.*)

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.