Located in New Ireland Province, the project covers 591.6 square kilometres at the northwestern end of the Lihir-Tabar alkaline volcanic belt that is home to the Lihir and Simberi gold deposits.

Yet PPM might become better known in the copper arena going by recent drilling results.

In early August the Toronto-listed explorer announced a 189m intersection of visible copper starting from a depth of 112m.

Yesterday PPM announced a 256m intersection from a hole drilled 100m west of this discovery hole.

Visible native copper was in the core from depths of 52-123m, while trace native copper, cuprite, chalcopyrite and chalcocite was visible from 123-308m.

The two holes were based on a conductivity anomaly found in a recently completed 3D induced polarisation geophysical survey.

PPM said its board had approved an extension of the Kuliuta drilling program to test the deeper copper potential.

The explorer estimates that this additional 2500m of drilling will be made through 10 more holes.

"Close-spaced, step-out drilling is underway to delineate the copper mineralisation found," PPM said.