Key Highlights

  • Diamond drilling has commenced at the Elizabeth Springs East (ESE) Prospect within SER's 100%-owned Diamantina Copper-Gold Project, 280km south of Cloncurry in western Queensland
  • Two-hole step-out program targeting extensions to historical intercepts including 161m at 0.4% Cu and 0.11g/t Au from 449m, with a high-grade zone of 17.3m at 1.76% Cu from 465.3m
  • First hole targets the copper-nickel sulphide breccia in DCT010 (6.5m at 0.52% Cu and 0.16% Ni from 423m), partially funded by a $275,000 Queensland Government CEI grant
  • Diamantina completes SER's back-to-back 2026 field season, with assays from Canobie, Bulimba and Diamantina all pending over coming months

Drilling Kicks Off the Third Leg of SER's Queensland Campaign

Strategic Energy Resources Limited (ASX:SER) has put a diamond drill rig on the ground at its Diamantina Copper-Gold Project in western Queensland, marking the third consecutive drilling program in the company's 2026 field season. The announcement, made on 28 October 2026, confirms the commencement of a two-hole program at the Elizabeth Springs East (ESE) Prospect, located approximately 280 kilometres south of Cloncurry.

For a company of SER's size, the pace of activity has been notable. This campaign follows the recent completion of diamond drilling at the Canobie Copper Project and the Bulimba Gold Project, creating a pipeline of pending assay results across three separate projects in Queensland. The Diamantina program also comes just 15 months after the company first secured the project — a tight timeline from Acquisition to the drill bit.

What the Holes Are Targeting

The two-hole program at ESE, totalling approximately 1,500 metres of diamond drilling, is built around two distinct geological targets.

The first hole is designed to test at depth the polymict sulphide breccia intersected at the bottom of a coiled tube drill hole, DCT010, which returned 6.5 metres at 0.52% copper and 0.16% nickel from 423 metres. The coiled tube rig that originally drilled this hole was only capable of sampling the top of the basement sequence — meaning the breccia has never been tested below that depth. Petrophysical analysis identified a conductive copper-nickel bearing sulphide breccia, consistent with an Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) model similar to mineralisation seen at Mount Isa. SER secured a $275,000 Queensland Government Collaborative Exploration Initiative grant to help fund this hole, along with a planned down-hole electromagnetic survey to test for off-hole conductors.

The second hole steps out from the most significant historical drill result at ESE — hole DTD002, which intersected 161 metres of copper-gold mineralisation from 449 metres, including a high-grade zone of 17.3 metres at 1.76% copper and 0.37 grams per tonne gold from 465.3 metres. That result, combined with re-processed geophysical data, underpins the targeting for this second hole.

Scale of the Opportunity

One of the most significant points made by the company is the scale of the untested footprint at ESE. Previous historical drilling was confined to an approximately 800 metre by 800 metre area — yet this sits within a much larger 4 kilometre by 2 kilometre coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly. The vast majority of ESE remains undrilled, which means the project retains considerable blue-sky potential if the current program intersects meaningful extensions.

Managing Director Dr David DeTata framed the Diamantina story as an opportunity for the company's shareholders to gain full exposure to a large-scale copper-gold project at a time when investor interest in new copper discoveries is elevated. The project is 100% owned by SER, which differentiates it from joint-venture structures where discovery upside is diluted.

Sector Context

Copper sits at the centre of a global energy transition narrative, driven by Demand from electric vehicles, grid infrastructure and renewable energy systems. While large-cap miners dominate global copper supply, explorers in established geological provinces like the Mt Isa Eastern Fold Belt — which SER's Diamantina project lies along the projected southern extension of — continue to attract investor attention.

Queensland has a long history of copper production anchored around the Mt Isa district. The IOCG mineral system model, if confirmed at ESE, would place Diamantina within a well-understood exploration paradigm with clear pathways to scale.

Risks

Diamond drilling programs of this nature carry inherent geological uncertainty. While the historical drill results at ESE provide genuine encouragement, step-out holes can Fail to intersect the predicted mineralisation extensions, or may hit structures at grades below economic interest.

Assay turnaround times mean that results from all three of SER's 2026 programs — Canobie, Bulimba and Diamantina — are pending simultaneously. This creates a period of news-flow uncertainty, and there is no guarantee that any of the programs will deliver the intercepts needed to advance towards resource definition.

SER is a small-cap explorer with limited cash and no producing assets. The success of the company's strategy depends heavily on exploration results and its ability to access Capital Markets to fund future programs.

What to Watch Next

The most immediate catalyst for SER is the return of assay results from Diamantina, Canobie and Bulimba over the coming months. Down-hole electromagnetic survey results from the first ESE hole could also provide important information about the depth extension potential of the copper-nickel breccia system before final assays are published.

Whether the current two-hole program is followed by an expanded campaign will depend on what the drill bit encounters at ESE. A meaningful extension to the high-grade copper-gold mineralisation in DTD002 would likely accelerate the company's plans for the project.