QMines Opens Botos With Strategic Land Purchase

Land Deal Opens Access to Botos

QMines Limited (ASX:QML) has paid $2.388 million to remove what it describes as the principal obstacle to exploring Botos, a polymetallic deposit about 700 metres from the planned Mt Chalmers processing hub in Central Queensland. The company has agreed to acquire two freehold properties covering 25.52 hectares over and adjacent to the deposit, giving it direct control of the core land position.

The deal covers 87 Bells Road for $1.138 million and 91 Bells Road for $1.250 million. Access to the first property applies from contract execution, while both acquisitions are scheduled to settle on 30 October 2026. The arrangement improves access across the central Botos area, although parts of the wider proposed drilling inventory remain subject to third-party land access.

Historical Mineralisation Faces Modern Test

Botos has not been drilled since Geopeko’s campaigns between 1977 and 1981. Those programmes produced several notable historical intersections, including 33 metres at 0.80 grams per tonne gold, 0.16% copper, 1.82% zinc, 0.93% lead and 47 grams per tonne silver. An included 21-metre interval returned 0.92 grams per tonne gold, 2.70% zinc, 1.39% lead and 62.6 grams per tonne silver.

Those results are useful for targeting, but they are not resource-grade evidence in the formal sense. QMines says the historical dataset lacks modern quality controls, recovery records, density measurements and full downhole surveys. Original samples are unavailable, assay methods are not fully documented and the reported intervals are downhole lengths whose true widths remain unconfirmed.

Nine-Hole Programme Targets Resource Pathway

The company has started a nine-hole, 1,500-metre Tier 1 programme designed to twin significant historical intersections and establish the technical foundation for a potential maiden Mineral Resource. The work introduces diamond drilling, oriented structural measurements, specific gravity data and modern QAQC to test the geometry, grade and continuity of the mineralised horizon.

Botos carries an Exploration Target of 1.5 million to 2.5 million tonnes grading 0.5 to 0.8 grams per tonne gold, 0.1% to 0.2% copper, 1.1% to 1.4% zinc, 0.5% to 0.7% lead and 30 to 50 grams per tonne silver at a 0.5 grams per tonne gold cut-off. That estimate dates from 2021, is conceptual in nature and has not been updated. No Mineral Resource has been estimated at Botos.

Expansion Depends on Tier 1 Results

QMines has outlined a further 3,800 metres of potential drilling to test Botos along strike and down dip, but that second phase is gated on the first campaign confirming the historical interpretation. The company’s broader staged inventory totals up to 6,000 metres, with later work described as opportunistic rather than committed.

For now, the investment case is less about an established addition to Mt Chalmers than about buying certainty around a nearby exploration target. A successful validation campaign could support a resource estimate and future assessment of Botos as satellite feed for the hub. That would still require resource definition, metallurgical testwork, mine planning, environmental and permitting work, and an economic assessment.