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

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.

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.