LATEST drilling by Perth-based Kagara Zinc has enhanced the possibility of a dedicated copper production facility at its Balcooma project in north Queensland. The company said it was likely the drilling would result in a substantial tonnage increase within the main primary copper resource at Balcooma, which currently stands at 1.978 million tonnes grading 3.3 per cent copper. Ore from the nearby Dry River South underground mine will be blended with the Balcooma open pit polymetallic ore and processed at Mt Garnet when the current campaign treating supergene copper from Balcooma is comp-leted. This campaign, which began mid September, has produced 7,400t of copper concentrate at an average grade of 27.5 per cent. See Copper focus, page 11.