Kalahari Copper Belt – Exploration Update
Power Metal Resources plc (LON: POW) the AIM-listed metals exploration and development company is pleased to announce the commencement of exploration fieldwork on the South Ghanzi Project (“South Ghanzi” or the “Project) on the Kalahari Copper Belt (“KCB”) in northwest Botswana.
South Ghanzi comprises two prospecting licences PL036/2020 and PL037/2020 (total area 1,294km2) held in a 50% owned strategic joint venture (“JV”) with Kavango Resource PLC (“Kavango”), as announced 21 September 2020. The JV holds of a total 2,680km2 portfolio of base and strategic metal project interests in Botswana which include the South Ghanzi project.
Exploration Rationale
The Botswana KCB is an emerging world-class exploration province for strata-bound copper-silver deposits with a trend extending over 1,000km along the northern boundary of the Kalahari carton in Botswana and Namibia.
The JV’s highly prospective South Ghanzi licences are strategically placed in the centre of this trend and are located immediately adjacent and interstitial to exploration targets and resource projects held by Sandfire Resources who recently committed to the commercial development of the T3 Copper-Silver Project (30km from JV) and to the regional Motheo Production Hub strategy targeting satellite high-grade copper deposits such as their A4 Maiden Resource Project (approximately 20km from the JV).
HIGHLIGHTS
– Field based exploration activities targeting the discovery of sedimentary copper deposits at the South Ghanzi Project have recently commenced under the operational management of Kavango.
– Workstreams consist of soil sampling and ground magnetic geophysics surveys which seek to delineate regional targets for future airborne electromagnetic (“AEM”) geophysical surveying. This is the same exploration strategy which led to the discovery of a number of the neighbouring copper deposits.
– JV Project comprises 1,294km2 of highly prospective ground held under licence PL036/2020 and PL037/2020.
– Mobile exploration fieldcamp has been established on the outskirts of Ghanzi town.
– To date, initial soil sampling has completed with 335 samples taken over 33.5 line km (on six lines at 100m spacing) over targeted areas selected on an interpretation of geological structures from regional magnetic and geological mapping data.
– Encouragingly only thin overburden Kalahari sand cover has been encountered to date with soil samples tested by a portable X-ray fluorescent analyser (“XRF”) ahead of being selected for assay at an accredited laboratory.
– Ground geophysics completed to date, and currently being processed, consists of 68.8 line km of magnetic survey based on 200m line spacing and 10m survey stations targeting potential geological reduction-oxidation (redox) boundaries and deformation zones which are considered prospective for the concentration of copper mineralisation.
– Results of sampling and geophysical surveying will be published as soon as available.
Paul Johnson Chief Executive Officer of Power Metal Resources plc commented:
“We are very excited to undertake ground exploration work at the South Ghanzi Project, our highly prospective joint venture tenements on the Kalahari Copper Belt.
The tried-and-tested regional exploration strategy of soil geochemistry, ground geophysics, follow-on airborne electromagnetic surveying techniques and drilling, has led to the discovery of a number of the high-profile adjacent copper deposits in close proximity to the JV.
Personally, I am delighted to return to the Kalahari Copper Belt and follow a similar pathway with this programme to that leading to the discovery of the T3 copper deposit in 2016 whilst I served as CEO of Metal Tiger plc, a joint venture partner in that discovery.
With this programme in full swing, yet another Power Metal project is the subject of proactive exploration in the search for a large-scale metal discovery.”
FURTHER INFORMATION:
South Ghanzi Work Programme
The first phase of field exploration on the JV South Ghanzi Project is an orientation programme, designed by the Kavango technical team, to map out the soil geochemistry and geological structures across the areas of initial interest. This will help identify targets for follow up work.
335 soil samples have been taken across 6 lines, totalling 33.5km. Only thin Kalahari sand cover was encountered, which is encouraging for future exploration work. The samples were sieved to 50 microns and are now being analysed using a portable XRF Analyser. Selected samples will then be sent to a laboratory for further testing.
Meanwhile, ground magnetic surveying was conducted over 68.8km. The surveying covered a number of sub-outcropping redox boundaries, which are believed to be typically associated with copper mineralisation. Line spacing was set at 200m, with 10m-station spacing. The survey data is now being processed and plotted.
Results from the laboratory testing of the soil samples and the reprocessing of the ground magnetic data are expected later this month.
The JV expects to conduct AEM surveys over prospective sections of the South Ghanzi project in the New Year.
The JV will work quickly towards test drilling of shallow targets once a 3 dimensional exploration model has been developed following the completion of the exploration activities described above.
The work has been reviewed and compiled by Kavango’s Mike Moles who is the competent person for fieldwork reporting.
Kalahari Copper Belt Project
The KCB stretches 1,000 km from northern Botswana to central Namibia and is prospective for copper-silver deposits. The KCB is relatively underexplored but is emerging as a globally significant copper belt , boosted by the fact it is located in stable and pro-mining Botswana which consistently ranks in the top three African countries in the Fraser Institute Investment Attractiveness Index (2015-2019).
In recent years the KCB has attracted substantial exploration interest. This has resulted in significant copper-silver discoveries including:
· Cupric Canyon Capital’s Zone 5 deposit (“Zone 5”), which hosts a Total Mineral Resource of 91.7 million tonnes (“Mt”) grading at 2.1% copper and 14 grams a tonne (“g/t”) of silver. In July 2019 Cupric raised US$650M for the construction of the Khoemacau Starter Project with previously announced plans to begin mining Zone 5 in mid-2021.
( https://www.khoemacau.com/assets/docs/2019_07_18_Cupric_KCM_Funding_Increase-20190718061954.pdf )
· MOD Resources’ and Metal Tiger’s (LON:MTR) commercial discovery at T3, which was subsequently acquired by Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) (“Sandfire”) in October 2019.
Following the completion of a definitive feasibility study Sandfire announced the investment decision to develop the T3 Copper-Silver Project as a mine on 1 December 2020. This involves a US$259 million development of the T3 Motheo Copper-Silver Project on a base case 3.2Mtpa operation with clear visibility to expand rapidly to 5.2Mtpa and an estimated life-of-mine (LOM) revenue of US$2.45 billion.
https://www.sandfire.com.au/site/PDF/8dfc69c6-9a2e-43cc-9079-c9880da7a102/SandfireApprovesDevelopmentofnewLonglifeCopperMine
· Sandfire’s A4 Dome satellite deposit, which is a high-grade vein hosted system, located 8km west of T3, also announced a maiden resource and recent high grade drill intersections (including 33.0m @ 4.6% Cu and 74.3 g/t Ag from 109m down-hole) on 1 December 2020.
The Project’s two JV Prospecting Licences (“PLs”) were awarded in April 2020, they lie in a highly prospective area immediately south of the District capital of Ghanzi. The PLs covering a total of 1,294.2 km2 are as follows:
– PL 036/2020 – (590.20km2) for initially 3yrs to 31 March 2023 — Yr1 exploration expenditure BWP 548,000 (about £37,500)
– PL 037/2020 – (704.00km2) for initially 3yrs to 31 March 2023 — Yr1 exploration expenditure BWP 548,000 (about £37,500)
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
The technical information contained in this disclosure has been read and approved by Mr Nick O’Reilly (MSc, DIC, MAusIMM, MIMMM, FGS), who is a qualified geologist and acts as the Competent Person under the AIM Rules – Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr O’Reilly is a Principal consultant working for Mining Analyst Consulting Ltd which has been retained by Power Metal Resources PLC to provide technical support.
REGULATORY STATEMENT
The information contained within this announcement is considered to be inside information prior to its release, as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No.596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company’s obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations.
