A junior exploration company is using land surveys from the
1870's to locate copper deposits in South Australia's historic
Burra mining region. The Australian reports that Phoenix Copper
(ASX:PNX) hopes to use the old maps to uncover major copper
deposits in the area around Burra, which is Australia's oldest
mining town and was once the source for 10% of the world's
copper The land surveys were prepared by mine captain Robert
Sanders in 1873 towards the end of Burra's heyday as one of
Australia's most lucrative mining communities. Burra first rose
to prominence in the mining industry following the discovery of
outcroppings of copper by two shepherds in 1845. By 1850 the
Burra region's Monster Mine was Australia's largest commercial
mining operation, producing 23,000 tonnes of ore and supplying
10% of global copper. Phoenix chief geologist Mark Manly says
that despite a second period of mining activity in the 1970's
the region has been little explored since the development of
modern drill rigs. On the basis of