Arc Minerals, the Africa focussed copper company, is pleased to announce the results from its scout drilling campaign completed at its Virgo Project located within the highly prospective Central Structural Corridor of the Kalahari Copper Belt (‘KCB’) in the Republic of Botswana.
Highlights
· Copper mineralisation and anomalism intersected
· Up to 3.65% Cu and 24 g/t Ag assayed over the individual sampled interval
· Interpreted Prospective Ngwako Pan / D’Kar contacts confirmed
· Zambia drilling programme being finalised over next few weeks
Nick von Schirnding, Executive Chairman of Arc Minerals, commented:
The maiden scout drilling campaign in Botswana on both licenses has been a great success with the prospective contact geology now confirmed to be present in both licenses. It is extremely encouraging to see significant mineralisation intersected close to the boundary of our licenses by Khoemacau that bodes well for our follow-up exploration campaign. I look forward to updating shareholders as we progress drilling the Virgo project.
Scout Drill Programme
The aim of the maiden scout drilling programme over both the PL 135/2017 and PL 162/2017 prospecting licenses that make up the Virgo project, was to:
· identify the lithologies below the Kalahari sand cover to confirm the presence of the interpreted D’Kar – Ngwako Pan formation contact.
· confirm the lateral extents of this favourable geology
· test for anomalism/mineralisation
This scout drilling campaign, with each hole spaced over 1km between profiles, has confirmed all of the above with contact geology, copper anomalism and mineralisation intersected with up to 3.65% Cu assayed over one of the sampled intervals near the contact between the D’Kar and Ngwako Pan formations (“DKF-NPF”).
Figure 1. Image showing location of holes drilled and respective license holdings in Botswana
PL 135/2017 License
The companies PL135/2017 prospecting license is surrounded on three sides by Khoemacau Copper Mining Limited (“Khoemacau”) prospecting licenses, who have recently been acquired by MMG for ~$1.9 billion.
This PL135/2017 license is located towards the south-eastern margin of the KCB occupying a similar geological setting to that recently drilled by Khoemacau at their recent Mawana Fold Discovery and the Zone 9 exploration target, where economic grades of copper mineralisation has already been intersected by drilling. These discoveries are located at the north-western and south-eastern margins of the Company’s prospecting license respectively.
Khoemacau’s Mawana fold discovery has defined a possible economic zone of copper mineralisation that appears to trend towards and into the Company’s PL 135/2017 license (Figure 2.). The Company’s recent scout drill holes intersected anomalous grades of copper mineralisation (details in the JORC Table 1. Report in Appendix A) close to this apparent trend and confirmed an east-west trending DKF-NPF contact position approximately 5km long running through the license.
Fig 2. Image showing Khoemacau license holding, targets and drilling results in relation to PL 135/2017.
PL 162/2017
Similarly, the Company’s PL162/2017 prospecting license is partly bounded to the north and east by Khoemacau’s prospecting licenses. One of the Company’s RAB drill holes, used to guide the positioning of RC scout drill holes, intersected 3.65% Cu and 24 g/t Ag over a sampled interval of 1m (‘ALV-RAB-017’; 25m-26m).
Further, a RC scout drill hole intersected 2.05% Cu and 58 g/t Ag over a sampled interval of 1m (‘ALV-RC-005’; 85m-86m), providing further support that the prospective contact geology in this part of the license carries economic grades of copper mineralisation.
Fig 3. Image showing Khoemacau license holding and holes drilled in relation to PL 162/2017.
Further Work
Recent developments with respect to the Mawana Fold discovery and the existing Zone 9 target on the margins of the PL135/2017 license of the neighbouring Khoemacau license holdings and the intersection of economic grades of mineralisation on PL162/2017, warrants further exploratory work to be carried out in these licenses.
In order to fine tune the next phase, a ground based Induced Polarisation (‘IP’) Geophysical survey is being considered to inform further drilling programmes. The ground IP will help resolve the 3D orientation of structures and lithologies, while also helping to discriminate between types of conductive structures and providing targets for drilling.
About the Virgo Project
In November 2021, Arc Minerals Limited acquired a 75% interest in Alvis-Crest (Proprietary) Limited, the holder of two prospecting licences (PL 135/2017 & PL 162/2017) in Botswana’s Kalahari Copper Belt (“KCB”), colloquially called the Virgo Project/Licences. These licenses, cover an area of over 210km2, with PL 135/2017 approximately 10km south-east of the large underground Khoemacau Copper mine recently commissioned by Cupric Canyon Capital LP.
Please see the below link to a map of the licences:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/3027T_1-2021-3-24.pdf
The Virgo Licenses cover an area of over 210km2 and lie within (PL 165/2017) and adjacent (PL 135/2017) to the highly prospective Central Structural Corridor and within 10km and 50km of the Zone 5 and Banana Zone copper projects respectively, known as the two largest copper projects on the KCB.S
Historically, two copper-nickel soil anomalies have already been recorded on PL 135/2017 and PL 162/2017 and are approximately 3km and 2.5km in strike length, respectively. The largest of the two anomalies, located on PL 135/2017, overlays an interpreted DKF-NPF contact, while a second more intermittent anomaly may be linked to extensional faulting around the dome edge. The large coherent anomaly on PL 162/2017, also appears to overlay the interpreted DKF-NPF contact on the northern limb of a syncline.
Qualified Persons
Mr Vassilios Carellas (BSc (Hons), MAusIMM) is the Chief Operating Officer for Arc Minerals and has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined under the JORC Code (2012). Mr Carellas consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the technical matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
