GSP Resource has secured a five-year, multi-year area-based (MYAB) drilling permit for the Mer Property in the Highland Valley Copper Camp, British Columbia (BC), Canada.
This permit allows the company to proceed with diamond drilling on a new porphyry target, identified through historical data and enhanced by recent rock and soil sampling.
Sampling efforts defined a copper anomaly of approximately 175m × 120m, open to the north-west.
Rock samples from the Mer site showed copper concentrations ranging from 0.14% to 1.02%, averaging 0.4%.
TerraSpec analysis indicated the presence of pargonitic muscovite and magnesium-iron chlorite, suggesting a high-temperature porphyry environment.
Located in the Kamloops Mining Division, the 185-hectare Mer Property is roughly 1.5km north-west of GSP’s Alwin Mine Project and near Teck Resource's Highland Valley Copper operations.
The initial drilling will be supported by existing logging roads, facilitating access to the area.
GSP intends to commence the drilling programme by the second quarter of 2026 (Q2 2026), pending board approval and funding availability.
Details are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The Mer Claims underwent extensive exploration by Cleveland Mining & Smelting from 1965 to 1971.
During this period, geochemical and geophysical surveys, geological mapping, bulldozer trenching and the drilling of 16 percussion holes totalling 610m, alongside one 150m diamond drill-hole, were conducted within the current Mer and surrounding claims.
The drilling efforts identified a 70m × 120m, north-east-trending porphyry copper-molybdenum zone with chalcocite, chalcopyrite, bornite and molybdenite mineralisation, also featuring biotite and some potassic alteration.
Historical percussion drill-holes at the Mer property (holes 1, 3, 15 and 16) revealed values in a 70m × 40m diamond pattern, with 9m averaging 0.47% copper, 30m averaging 0.53% copper, 15m at 0.50% copper and 21m averaging 0.51% copper, respectively.
A diamond drill-hole centred among the percussion holes intersected chalcocite mineralisation in biotite and potassic-altered granodiorite, averaging 0.29% copper over 24m from a depth of 9m.
The mineralisation zone currently remains open to the north and west.
