Red Lead – Highly prospective Lead-Zinc-Silver Exploration Target Identified
Beowulf (AIM: BEM; Spotlight : BEO), the mineral exploration and development company, is pleased to announce new results from detailed geological mapping over the highly prospective Red Lead target, located within the Mitrovica licence, in Kosovo, being explored by Vardar Minerals Ltd (“Vardar”), which Beowulf is a 59.5 per cent. shareholder of.
Red Lead shares similarities observed at the neighbouring world-class Stan Terg deposit, such as the same host rocks, trachyte heat source, hydrothermal breccias and hydrothermal alteration patterns. The Stan Terg deposit is located just two kilometres to the east of Red Lead and has a resource of 63 million tonnes at 3.5 per cent. lead, 2.3 per cent. zinc and 80 grammes per tonne silver – based on past production and estimated remaining reserves at the same grade, and therefore Red Lead is highly prospective for the same metals and possible economic mineralisation.
Chris Davies, Non-Executive Director and Kurt Budge, CEO were in Kosovo a few weeks ago to see the drilling operation on Majdan Peak. Three full days were spent reviewing technical aspects of the exploration programme, which proved invaluable, giving us a thorough appreciation of the excellent and high-quality work being performed by the local Vardar team.
Highlights:
· The Red Lead target is defined by a two kilometres East-Northeast trending lead-zinc-copper-gold soil sample anomaly along with:
o Mineralised trachyte bodies (with up to three per cent zinc from rock sampling);
o Prominent induced polarisation (“IP”) anomalies indicative of potential sulphide metal sources; and
o Hydrothermal breccias and gossanous outcrops.
· Detailed mapping has identified marble units along with gossans, trachyte bodies and carbonate alteration, further highlighting the potential for carbonate-replacement style lead-zinc-silver mineralisation.
· Several outcrops of marble in the basement host rocks could provide an ideal trap-site for metal-rich hydrothermal fluids.
· This important target shares the same host rocks, trachyte heat source, hydrothermal breccias and hydrothermal alteration pattern as the neighbouring Stan Terg deposit which is located equidistant from the Majdan Peak high-sulphidation epithermal target.
· The developing picture is as expected with text-book geological models (see Figure 2).
Kurt Budge, Chief Executive Officer of Beowulf, commented:
“Following on from the announcement of the discovery, in August, of the large polymetallic epithermal system at Majdan Peak and the announcement in September, with the results of drill intersections for Majdan Peak South and more drill targets, these results lead us to believe that Vardar’s licences could hold some of the most prospective exploration tenure in Europe for gold and base metals.
“As the weather finally turns colder in Kosovo, drilling will shortly be suspended until Spring 2023. We have assays from the latest programme expected in January 2023 and work will continue on interpreting latest findings.
“To add to the growing list of exploration targets at Mitrovica, we now have Red Lead, which displays all the key geological markers of the neighbouring Stan Terg deposit and mine, and which is a priority target for drilling in Spring 2023.”
Red Lead
The Red Lead target is defined by an extensive two kilometres soil anomaly (Figure 1) which follows an East-Northeast trend to the neighbouring Stan Terg deposit.
The target is hosted in Mesozoic basement rocks in proximity to the Majdan Peak high-sulphidation epithermal target and is considered part of the same Oligocene mineralising event (Figure 2).
The target includes a number of trachyte (latite) bodies with associated hydrothermal breccias which often display highly anomalous metal concentrations (e.g. zinc values > three per cent).
Recent mapping has identified several outcrops of marble in the basement host rocks which would provide an ideal trap-site for metal-rich hydrothermal fluids. Importantly these outcrops have coincident IP anomalies providing further evidence of a potential sulphide-rich metal source.
Given the similarities in host rock geology, trachyte dykes, alteration and metal associations with Stan Terg, Red Lead is considered a priority target for follow-up drill testing (Figure 2).
Beowulf’s Investment in Vardar
Since Beowulf’s first investment in Vardar in November 2018, the Company has now invested approximately £3.1 million and owns 59.5 per cent of Vardar. Vardar gives Beowulf exposure to the highly prospective exploration potential of the Tethyan Belt, a major orogenic metallogenic province for gold and base metals.
Throughout the last four years, the Vardar team has delivered exciting results for both the Mitrovica licence which has several exploration targets, including lead, zinc, copper and gold, and also the Viti licence which is showing potential for copper-gold porphyry mineralisation and lithium.
Looking to the future, Beowulf has several options as it continues to develop Vardar, which include further investments by Beowulf, or in the event of a discovery the introduction of third-party investors or, if the right exploration package is created and supports a standalone business, then the possibility of spinning-out Vardar. Beowulf is keeping these options under review.
Figure 1. Red Lead Target with soil sample and rock grab results overlain on geological mapping. IP anomalies are highlighted in magenta.
Figure 2. (left) Interpreted position of the Red Lead target based on an ideal porphyry model (Sillitoe, 2010). (right) section and plan map illustrating the association of Pb-Zn-Ag mineralisation at Stan Terg with trachyte/latite bodies, marbles and breccias (Palinkas et al, 2015).
Qualified Person Review
The information in this announcement has been reviewed by Mr. Chris Davies, a Qualified Person (“QP”), who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Davies has conducted a desktop review of source documents and data which underpin the technical statements disclosed herein and approves the disclosure of technical information in the form and context in which it appears in this announcement, in his capacity as a QP as required under the AIM rules. Mr. Davies has visited Vardar’s Mitrovica and Viti projects in Kosovo.
Mr. Davies has sufficient experience, that is relevant to the content of this announcement, to qualify as a Competent Person (“CP”) as defined in the 2012 Edition of the “Australasian Code of Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves”.
Mr. Davies BSc (Hons) Geology, MSc DIC Mineral Exploration, FAusIMM, is a Non-executive Director of Beowulf and is an exploration/economic geologist with more than 35 years’ experience in the mining sector.
Glossary:
g/t – grammes per tonne
Gossans – represent exceedingly ferruginous rock, which are the product of oxidation by weathering and leaching of sulphide mineralisation, usually in the upper and exposed part of an ore deposit or mineral vein i.e. the weathered ore body at surface.
Hydrothermal Alteration – also referred to as wallrock alteration, is a general term that encompasses many processes by which rock-forming minerals are altered due to reactions accompanying the flow of heated aqueous fluids along fractures and grain boundaries.
Induced Polarisation (IP) – Variations in chargeability can be diagnostic, for example, when aiming to characterise a mineral deposit, where the chargeability of the mineralised zone is often higher than the host rock. Often an Induced Polarisation (IP) experiment is performed with the Direct Current Resistivity (DCR) hence they are often called IP-DC survey. Both conductivity and chargeability distribution can be recovered from an IP-DC survey.
Trachyte – is a light-coloured, very fine-grained extrusive igneous rock that is composed chiefly of alkali feldspar with minor amounts of dark-coloured minerals such as biotite, amphibole, or pyroxene.
Enquiries:
|
Beowulf Mining plc |
|
|
Kurt Budge, Chief Executive Officer |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3771 6993 |
