The bulk of the budget has been earmarked for a 10,000m drill programme on the advanced Arctic project with the focus on advancing studies and preparing for permit applications.

Drilling will mainly focus on resource conversion, the next phase of metallurgical studies including pilot plant testing, and condemnation drilling.

Drilling will start mid-June and finish by late August, with testwork ongoing throughout the year.

The programme will also follow up on regional work conducted in 2019 along the 100km Ambler Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide Belt, with about 2,500m of drilling aimed at discovering and defining potential deposits that can provide additional feed to a future Arctic mill.

Over at the earlier-stage Bornite project, follow-up work on the previous three field seasons will see geological mapping and geochemical soil sampling over the northern Cosmos Hills area, including a review of drill core and surface exposures to determine the controls of high-grade copper zones.

Despite no drilling planned at Bornite for 2020, the programme will identify priority drill targets for the 2021 field season.

The partners formed the joint venture earlier this month over the 172,675-hectare UKMP, with Trilogy contributing the assets and South32 injecting $145 million capex.

The UKMP projects host a combined resource comprising 8Blb copper, 3Blb zinc and 1Moz gold-equivalent.