Metal Tiger plc (LON:MTR), the London Stock Exchange AIM listed investor in strategic natural resource opportunities, today provided an update on planned exploration work for the licence areas held in joint venture with MOD Resources Limited (30% Metal Tiger: 70% MOD) and for the 100% MOD held T3 Copper Project, in the Kalahari Copper Belt, Botswana.
The planned work programmes are part of a proposed wider growth strategy to add substantial value by systematically building mineral resources in potential T3 satellite deposits, with the aim of building a pipeline of satellite mines to leverage planned T3 infrastructure and provide increased and supplementary production throughput to the planned T3 Processing Plant. MOD and their advisers continue to advance a range of funding options towards a decision to mine T3, with interested parties.
Planned high priority work targets include:
T20 Exploration Project (JV held), staged reverse circulation (“RC”) drilling and diamond core (“DD”) drilling at
T23 Dome, 100km west of T3. Follow-up drilling, nine RC and four DD holes, along 4km of T23 Dome, commencing early May 2019;
T3 Expansion Project (JV held)
A4 Prospect, on 5km long A4 Dome, located 8km from T3. Staged drilling, six RC and one DD holes, planned to build out from hole MO-A4-003D, which intersected 52m @ 1.5% Cu & 14g/t Ag from 232m, including 15.5m @ 2.9% Cu & 42g/t Ag from 269m (announced on 6 August 2018), with the aim of preliminary JORC Resource definition in second half of 2019.
Numerous potential drilling targets identified within 25km radius of planned T3 Open-Pit Processing Plant, from geophysical and geochemical survey anomalies; and
T3 Copper Project (100% MOD held)
Resource drilling for T3 Underground Project (below planned open-pit). Initial 16 DD holes, followed by further infill drilling, planned for JORC Resource definition, with work expected to commence early June 2019.
Further information on the planned work by target is detailed below.
Michael McNeilly, Chief Executive Officer of Metal Tiger, commented:
“We are pleased to report the JV strategy to seek to add further value at T3 and our wider holdings in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana. It is anticipated that this will be achieved through the planned exploration work as we seek to discover new copper deposits as well as through the delineation of additional JORC Resources from known prospects which offer the potential to provide throughput to the planned T3 Open-Pit Processing Plant.
We believe that further resource definition around the T3 project, as per today’s announced work programme, is an easy and low-risk opportunity to increase the value of Metal Tiger’s portfolio of assets in the Kalahari Copper Belt.”
This announcement coincides with an update released today by MOD which can be viewed through the following link: https://www.asx.com.au/asx/share-price-research/company/MOD
T20 Exploration Project Programme
The T20 Exploration Project covers an area of approximately 3,350km2, within the approximately 200km long, Central Structural Corridor that hosts T3 as well as the T23 Dome and A4 Domes.
T23 Dome (JV held)
The T23 Dome is an approximately 15km long structural feature which is interpreted, from airborne electromagnetic (EM) geophysics data, to link (from east to west) the T4 Prospect, T4 West and the T23 Prospect. At the T4 Prospect, RC drilling in February 2016 intersected 2m @ 6.1% Cu and 111 g/t Ag from 101m depth, before activities were put on hold in order to focus on T3.
Planned work consists of:
T23 Prospect drilling planned to commence in May 2019, with nine wide spaced RC holes and four DD holes, following-up shallow copper and silver mineralisation intersected in three previous holes (announced on 21 November 2018 and 10 December 2018) and testing a 4km, thus far undrilled, strike length.
Where the proposed T23 Prospect re-drilling is successful, it is planned to extend the drilling eastwards to the T4 West target approximately 7km east of T23. T4 West shows similar geophysical signatures to the T4 Prospect and is located intermediately between the T23 and T4 prospects.
T3 Expansion Programmes
A4 Dome (JV held)
A4 Dome is a structural formation located 8km from the planned T3 Open-Pit and the proposed Processing Plant, within the T3 Expansion Project area.
The A4 Dome drilling programme commenced in June 2018, the third hole MO-A4-003D intersected 52m @ 1.5% Cu & 14g/t Ag from 232m, including 15.5m @ 2.9% Cu & 42g/t Ag from 269m (announced on 6 August 2018). At the end of 2018, a total of 20 DD holes had been drilled with 18 of the 20 holes intersecting both vein hosted and Ngwako Pan Formation (“NPF”) copper mineralisation.
The Proposed A4 Dome drilling programme, which is expected to start during the second half of 2019, will seek to test for the widespread NPF contact mineralisation below the A4 Dome.
Planned work includes:
Six shallow RC holes to follow-up shallow vein hosted mineralisation in hole MO-A4-019D (announced on 20 December 2018); and
One deep DD hole to follow-up the high-grade vein hosted mineralisation intersected in holes MO-A4-003D and MO-A4-008D (announced on 20 December 2018).
If successful, it is expected that a further drilling programme would follow-on with the objective of delineating a maiden JORC Resource on the A4 Dome. Given the proximity to T3, it is envisaged that such a JORC Resource could potentially feed into the planned T3 Processing Plant.
T3 Underground Project (100% MOD held)
The T3 Underground Project is targeting the high-grade vein hosted copper potential interpreted to extend immediately below and down-dip of the planned T3 Open Pit.
Work will follow on from the completion of the T3 Resource infill drilling, expected to commence in early June 2019.
Planned drilling work will follow-on from numerous high-grade drill intersections (announced on 5 January 2018 and 24 May 2018) and will be undertaken in two phases:
Phase 1: 16 DD holes to delineate further high-grade copper and silver mineralisation in the T3 Underground Target Area; and
Phase 2: Infill drilling to enable a Mineral Resource Estimate during second half 2019.
T3 Expansion Project wider area (JV held)
In addition to the A4 Dome and T3 Underground Project there are numerous regional, potentially shallow, individual drill targets, based on interpretation of both previous airborne EM geophysics and soil geochemical surveys. These targets represent further, future, potential within the JV held T3 Expansion Project Area covered by licences PL189/2008, PL190/2008, PL074/2017 and PL189/2008.
