AI data centres are also giant drivers for metal demand. Pic: Getty Images
- Green & Gold Minerals is assembling a copper, silver, tin and indium play in North Queensland’s Herberton Mineral Field
- The AI and electrification boom is intensifying demand for conductor, solder and electronics metals
- Drilling at Copper Hills, Mt Gossan and Siberia will test whether historic ground can deliver modern scale
The artificial intelligence boom is usually sold as an ethereal contest for chips, cloud capacity and ever-larger data centres.
But behind the software race sits a harder industrial truth: AI is a metals story.
Every model trained, server cooled and data hall energised depends on a physical supply chain of conductors, solders and specialist metals that rarely attract the same attention as Nvidia chips or hyperscale cloud deals.
Copper carries the power.
Silver moves signals through electronics, solar panels and high-performance systems.
Tin holds circuit boards together.
Indium sits inside displays, semiconductors and thin-film technologies.
Around them is a wider network of metals needed for substations, transformers, server racks, cooling systems, electric vehicles, solar farms and the grid connections required to make the digital economy function.
That is the less glamorous, more tangible side of the AI boom — and it is the opening Green & Gold Minerals (ASX:GG1) believes it has found in North Queensland’s historic Herberton field.
The ASX junior, better known for its Chillagoe gold assets, is building an AI metals story across the Herberton Mineral Field, where historic tin country is being extended to copper, silver, tin and indium.
Managing director Ted Boultan says the company acquired much more than an old tin project when it moved on the Burlington silver-copper project and expanded its Herberton position earlier this year.
“Herberton is more than a tin field,” Boultan said.
“There is also a separate, defined copper field, with substantial copper and silver production.”
With a shortage of the metals required to connect, conduct, solder and power the infrastructure surge now driven by AI, electrification and advanced electronics, there is no better time to bring overlooked and underexplored assets with historic production back from the dead.
Conductor metals come into focus
Herberton is prospective for copper, silver, tin, indium and gold, giving the company exposure to a cluster of metals tied to the same demand cycle.
None of these guarantee exploration success. But it does provide Green & Gold with a wider macro angle than a single-commodity junior chasing a single price cycle.
The opportunity is not entirely about demand.
It is these metals that are increasingly tied to the same capital cycle: more power, more chips, more servers, more electronics, more renewables and more grid capacity.
The International Energy Agency expects electricity consumption from data centres to rise from 485TWh in 2025 to 950TWh in 2030, as AI loads accelerate and power availability becomes a bigger constraint on digital growth.
Old field, new thesis
Green & Gold’s Herberton project sits in a proven North Queensland mineral district already attracting interest from other explorers.
Nearby reference points include Iltani Resources’ (ASX:ILT) Orient project, Dover Castle and the Baal Gammon deposit, which hosts silver, copper, indium and tin credits.
Proximity is not proof.
But drilling will determine whether Green & Gold’s ground can support the company’s long-term ambition to make large-scale discoveries and position itself in metals leveraged to rising demand from AI, computing and renewable energy infrastructure.
Its thesis is that the field has the continuity, grade and by-product potential to emerge as a district-scale system suited to modern exploration.
Boultan says the company’s focus is on converting historic, tin-rich mining districts into large-scale, standalone polymetallic resources.
Some ground has been locked up for decades in small mining leases and historical tenure, limiting modern exploration.
This gives the company a clear story: old field, new access, modern demand, and fresh exploration.
And the best exploration stories rarely involve unknown ground; they’re about misunderstood, under-tested, or previously unavailable ground at the right scale. Green & Gold’s challenge is to prove Herberton fits that category.
Drilling to test scale
Green & Gold’s near-term work is expected to centre on Copper Hills, Mt Gossan and Siberia, with drilling designed to test high-grade copper, silver and indium potential before broader district-scale questions are answered.
Naturally, Copper Hills was first on the list.
“Historic drilling returned high-grade copper and silver with significant potential to add to any future resource base,” Boultan said.
Mt Gossan and Siberia are the scale targets.
Boultan says the Siberia-Mt Gossan structure will be central to proving how prolific the field is.
“We are looking at the Siberia-Mt Gossan structure to really demonstrate scale,” he said.
“The mineralised structure is continuous for around 5km, and we believe it could extend to significant depth.
“Copper Hills will be drilled first, where historic drilling returned high-grade copper and silver with significant potential to add to any future resource base.”
Honing focus
Small ASX explorers can often stumble when they have too many targets and too little capital to test them properly.
Boultan says Green & Gold has plenty of targets, but is prioritising low-cost drilling to preserve cash.
“We will keep the momentum up by focusing on cost-effective drilling designed to test for scale,” he said.
“Step-out holes at Mt Gossan, Siberia and Copper Hills give us the opportunity to quickly assess shallow economic potential without spreading capital too thin.
“Across the Siberia-Mt Gossan, Elizabeth Bluffs, Ivy Line and Penang Pekin systems, we already see extensive gold, silver, copper, tin and indium mineralisation over 13km of strike in a compact area between two major intrusive centres.
“Our bigger goal is to identify large-scale intrusion-related systems driving this widespread mineralisation, while continuing to demonstrate scale potential in the shallow systems along the way.”
There’s enormous leverage on the deal if GG1 finds something significant, the scrip acquisition clocked in at a price of just $450,000.
Along with high grade rock chips, around 41 shallow holes have previously been drilled, throwing up some pretty enticing grades including:
- 8m at 39g/t Ag, 2.58% Cu, 0.32% Sn from 15m (Siberia) (Au, In not assayed)
- 3m at 77g/t Ag, 0.72% Cu, 4.7% Zn, 2.3% Pb, 0.68% Sn from 20m (Siberia) (Au, In not assayed)
- 1m at 10.3% Sn (Siberia) (Au, In not assayed)
- 4m at 6.6g/t Au from 25m (Elizabeth Bluffs) (In not assayed)
- 3m at 46g/t Ag, 1.9% Cu, 0.5% Zn, 0.45% Sn from 22m (Mt Gossan) (Au, In not assayed); and
- 3m at 62g/t Ag, 0.9% Cu, 0.9% Pb+Zn from 127.5m (Consolidated) (In, Sn not assayed).
Next phase rests on evidence
The wider North Queensland context could work in Green & Gold’s favour.
While the region holds potential for a larger portfolio of critical minerals – antimony, bismuth and tungsten among them – Green & Gold’s most immediate commercial lever is still conductor metals.
Copper, silver, tin and indium are directly tied to AI, electrification and advanced manufacturing. These metals are embedded in the hardware that builds, connects and powers the next wave of technology.
If Copper Hills produces high-grade copper and silver, and Siberia or Mt Gossan starts to show scale, Green & Gold can move beyond the label of a gold junior with a thematic angle.
Herberton’s early fortunes were built on metals that powered the old economy.
Green & Gold is now trying to show that its next chapter can be built on metals needed for the new one.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Green & Gold Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
