Exploration company Island Passage Exploration Limited (IPX) has announced a significant breakthrough at its EL02 license on Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea, reporting the first discovery of porphyry copper-gold style mineralization. The findings, released on December 22, 2025, mark a major step forward for mineral exploration in a region that has seen little activity for decades.
A New Porphyry Target Emerges at Bara-Tangka
Since March of this year, the company has intensified its field program on the EL02 project, deploying two geological teams. This effort has now identified a substantial new target area named Bara-Tangka. Here, geologists found widespread enrichment of copper, gold, and molybdenum in rock samples across an area spanning several square kilometres.
The mineralization is hosted within monzonite and porphyritic diorite rocks, which are associated with a deeply-rooted magnetic intrusive body identified through airborne surveys. Follow-up work, including detailed mapping and a large-scale soil sampling grid, has yielded results that have surpassed the company's initial expectations.
High-Grade Channel Sample Results
The company provided a series of compelling channel sample results that demonstrate the potential scale and grade of the discovery. Key highlights from the Bara-Tangka porphyry target include:
47.0 metres at 0.56% copper, 0.49 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 5.9 g/t silver, and 0.018% molybdenum. This lengthy intercept included a higher-grade zone of 6.0 metres averaging 0.67% copper, 0.95 g/t gold, 24.6 g/t silver, and 0.13% molybdenum.
Additional notable results were 20.0 metres at 0.50% copper and 0.14 g/t gold, and 27.0 metres at 0.22% copper and 0.12 g/t gold.
High-grade vein-style mineralization was also confirmed at other targets within the license. At the Marai target, a channel sample returned 3.8 metres at 3.57% copper and 4.40 g/t gold. The Isina target yielded samples including 3.0 metres at 6.7 g/t gold and 6.0 metres at 1.2% copper.
Large-Scale Anomalies and Advancing Towards Drilling
The scale of the system is further evidenced by soil sampling. A newly completed grid at Bara-Tangka has revealed strong copper and gold anomalies covering more than four square kilometres, with a peak copper value of 0.297% in soils.
In total, the company has collected over 1,380 rock samples across the property, with average values of 2.04 g/t gold and 0.278% copper, indicating a rich underlying source. More than 1,200 soil samples have been gathered to date.
Patrick Highsmith, IPX President and Co-Founder, emphasized the importance of the progression from high-grade vein samples to continuous porphyry-style mineralization. "This evolution is significant because we can now see and understand the presence of several different magmatic hydrothermal systems on the license," Highsmith stated. He noted the target's proximity, being less than 13 kilometres from the giant historic Panguna copper-gold deposit.
Donald McInnes, IPX Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder, highlighted the historic context. "Our partners and stakeholders recognize the significance of this accomplishment, as there has been no exploration drilling on Bougainville in over 40 years," he said. The company is now developing targets and planning its first drilling campaign, which could commence by the end of the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2026.
