TIDMTYM
RNS Number : 5563H
Tertiary Minerals PLC
25 November 2022
25 November 2022
Tertiary Minerals plc ("Tertiary" or "the Company")
UPDATE - COPPER PROJECTS, ZAMBIA
Tertiary Minerals plc is pleased to announce that it's local
partner and licence holder Mwashia Resources Ltd ("Mwashia") has
now received approval of Environmental Project Briefs ("EPBs") from
the Zambian Environmental Management Agency ("ZEMA") for the
Konkola West and Lubuila Copper Projects where the Company is
earning up to a 90% interest.
The Company is also providing a project update for the Mukai and
Mushima North Projects following a preliminary data review and
first meetings with global copper producer First Quantum Minerals
Ltd ("FQM") with whom the Company has a data sharing and technical
cooperation agreement (the "Data Sharing and Technical Cooperation
Agreement") .
Key Points:
EPB Approvals
-- ZEMA has now approved EPBs for the Konkola West & Lubuila Licences.
-- The approval process for the Mukai & Mushima North Project EPBs is at an advanced stage.
-- EPB approval is required before exploration can take place.
Project Updates
-- Initial prospectivity reviews completed by consultant Remote
Exploration Services (RES) of South Africa, based on historical
data.
-- First meetings held with FQM under the Data Sharing and
Technical Cooperation Agreement. Data transfer from FQM to the
Company is currently in progress.
-- Exploration targeting underway with initial priority areas already defined by RES at:
Ø Mukai, where the host stratigraphy for FQMs nearby Enterprise
Nickel Mine and giant Sentinel Copper Mine can be traced into the
Mukai Licence where there are both copper and nickel geochemical
anomalies.
Ø Mushima North, where historical drilling in the 1960s
encountered wide zones of low-grade copper-sulphide mineralisation
and which is prospective for iron-oxide-copper-gold ("IOCG")
deposits.
Commenting today, Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham said:
"I am delighted to report that, following a recent series of
positive updates for the Jacks Copper Project in Zambia where we
have now earned a 90% interest, the necessary EPBs are now starting
to be issued for the other Zambian projects where we have similar
earn-in rights.
I am also pleased and excited to be reporting progress in our
data sharing and technical cooperation agreement with FQM along
with the definition of several exploration targets from a desktop
study of historical exploration results commissioned with RES prior
to our agreement with FQM."
For more information please contact:
Tertiary Minerals plc:
Patrick Cheetham, Executive
Chairman +44 (0) 1625 838 679
------------------------------
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Richard Morrison +44 (0) 203 470 0470
------------------------------
Caroline Rowe
------------------------------
Peterhouse Capital Limited
Joint Broker
Lucy Williams + 44 (0) 207 469 0930
-------------------------------
Duncan Vasey
------------------------------
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 which forms part of
UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018 ('MAR'). Upon the publication of this announcement via a
Regulatory Information Service ('RIS'), this inside information is
now considered to be in the public domain.
Additional Information
Background
Tertiary is exploring in Zambia through its local subsidiary
Tertiary Minerals (Zambia) Limited ("TMZ") which is 96% owned by
Tertiary Minerals plc. TMZ now holds 90% of the Jacks Copper
Project with the remaining 10% held by local company and licence
holder Mwashia Resources Ltd ("Mwashia"). TMZ holds an option to
purchase Mwashia's 10% interest in the Jacks exploration licence
for US$3.5 million at any time.
TMZ also holds options to earn up to a 90% interest in four
other licences held by Mwashia, namely the Mukai, Mushima North,
Lubuila and Konkola West exploration licences. Further details of
Tertiary's agreements with Mwashia are given in the Company's news
releases of 2 August 2021 and 18 November 2021.
The Mukai and Mushima North licences are covered by a Data
Sharing and Technical Cooperation Agreement with First Quantum
Minerals Limited ("FQM"). Further details of the Agreement can be
found in in the Company's news release of 15 September 2022.
EPB Approvals
Before exploration can be carried out on a licence in Zambia, an
Environmental Project Brief ("EPB") must be submitted for approval
by the Zambian Environmental Management Agency ("ZEMA").
An approved EPB is already in place for the Jacks Copper Project
and Mwashia has now advised that EPBs have been approved for the
Lubuila and Konkola West Licences and that the process for EPB
approvals for Mukai and Mushima North is at an advanced stage
within ZEMA.
Project Updates
The Company and FQM have now held their first meeting and data
transfer is underway from FQM's proprietary regional exploration
programmes that included the Mukai and Mushima North project areas.
This includes extensive geological, geophysical and geochemical
data.
Prior to reaching its agreement with FQM the Company had
commissioned South African company Remote Exploration Services
("RES") to conduct a desktop study on the exploration history and
prospectivity of the four Mwashia licences held under option.
The following information is intended as a preliminary update of
the prospectivity of the two licences that are covered by the FQM
agreement and is based on the earlier RES project review which has
already defined priority targets. Target generation is ongoing and
will incorporate the FQM data. The Company aims to be in a position
to commence field exploration as soon as possible.
Mukai Copper Project, 27066-HQ-LEL
Exploration Licence 27066-HQ-LEL covers 55.4 sq. km. and is
located 125km west of Solwezi in the north-western Province of
Zambia. Geologically it is in the Domes Region of the Central
African Copperbelt and it encompasses Lower Roan Group rocks on the
southern flank of the highly prospective Kabompo Dome.
The licence is directly adjacent to FQM's Trident Project
licences which includes the recently opened Enterprise Nickel Mine
and the giant producing Sentinel (Kalumbila) Copper Mine, located
8km south and 18km southeast of the licence, respectively. FQM has
invested US$2.1 billion in the Sentinel copper mine where the plant
has the capacity to treat 55 million tonnes of ore per annum.
Enterprise is a sediment-hosted nickel-sulphide deposit with a
total measured and indicated resource of 40 million tonnes of ore
containing 431,000 tonnes of nickel from which FQM envisages
processing some 4 million tonnes per year of nickel ore making
Enterprise the largest nickel mine in Africa.
Just west of Mukai is Arc Minerals Ltd.'s Zambia Copper-Cobalt
Project where Anglo American plc has the option to earn a 70%
interest from Arc Minerals through expenditure of US$88.5 million
including US$14.5 million in cash payments to Arc Minerals.
Historic exploration in the Mukai licence area has been carried
out for copper by Roan Selection Trust ("RST") in the 1960s, for
uranium by Agip in the 1980s, and by an Equinox- Anglo American JV
("Zamanglo") in the early 2000s. Most of this work was of a
regional nature comprising stream sediment sampling and soil
sampling.
To date, FQM has provided Tertiary with licence-wide geophysical
data including magnetic data, radiometric data and electromagnetic
data. FQM's mapping, in part based on this data, has traced the
Enterprise and Sentinel host rocks into the Mukai Licence where
they occur in similar proximity to the deep seated Kalumbia Fault
Zone.
A copper soil anomaly was identified within the Mukai licence by
RST in the 1960s close to the boundary with FQM's licences and is
seen to continue into FQM's adjacent licence as a copper and
copper:scandium anomaly (high copper:scandium ratios are seen as an
indicator of copper sulphide mineralisation as opposed to enhanced
background level of copper in the rock). This is a high priority
target for follow-up exploration.
Nickel anomalies have also been identified in the licence area,
in soils by Zamanglo and in stream sediments by the Zambian
Geological Survey. Data interpretation and targeting is
ongoing.
The Mukai Licence contains an area of designated forest, which,
although affording a higher level of environmental protection, does
not exclude exploration or mining.
Mushima North Copper Project, 27068-HQ-LEL
Exploration Licence 27068-HQ-LEL covers 701.3 sq. km. and is
located 100km east of Manyinga.
The licence encompasses basement rocks outside of the
traditional Copper Belt and the region is a focus of exploration
for copper-gold in so called Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold ("IOCG")
deposits, best exemplified by the giant Olympic Dam
copper-gold-uranium deposit in South Australia.
The past producing Kalengwa Copper Mine is situated
approximately 20km west of the licence and is believed to be one of
the highest-grade copper deposits ever mined in Zambia. In the
1970s high grade ore in excess of 26% copper, making up
approximately 20% of the orebody, was trucked for direct smelting
at Copper Belt mines.
Historical exploration at Mushima North has been carried out by
RST in the 1960s, African Minerals Corporation in the early 2000s
and by BHP Group Limited later in the 2000s. BHP flew their
proprietary Falcon gravity gradiometer over the licence area,
defining geological structures and targets for further
exploration.
Historical exploration has focused on the eastern margin of a
series of syenitic-granitic intrusives. A number of historic copper
prospects occur within the licence and soil anomalies have been
identified in RST soil sampling programmes in the 1960's. One of
these anomalies was followed up with a 154m deep drill hole, RKN
800, which intersected pyritic siltstone and sandstone containing
chalcopyrite (copper sulphide) in association with calcite veins.
Sampling of drill cores was very rudimentary with random samples
taken at the end of each core run. Nevertheless, copper values were
anomalous throughout with many samples grading more than 0.3%
copper (0.3% being the upper limit on the graphical scale of
analytical results presented with the drill log). This is an
immediate target for follow-up exploration.
FQM has so far provided the Company with airborne magnetic and
VTEM electromagnetic survey data for the Mushima North licence.
This data will be processed with a view to additional target
generation and data compilation and reviews are ongoing.
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