Tertiary Minerals plc said that initial scout drilling results indicated more promise at the Mukai copper project in Zambia.
PRIORITY
First Quantum Minerals Ltd (FQM), which is managing the exploration as part of its due diligence, completed an initial scout drilling programme of three diamond drill holes for a total 554 metres.
FQM holds the adjacent Trident project comprising the Sentinel copper and Enterprise nickel mines.
Two drill holes targeted the broader copper-in-soil anomaly and one hole tested the
geology of the Tirosa Basin.
Tertiary said that operations intersected near surface anomalous (>500 parts per million) copper mineralisation.
Results from two holes include 0.12% copper over 3.8m from 1.6m downhole and 0.17% copper over 2m from 4m downhole.
Drilling also intersected near surface and thick intervals of anomalous (>500 ppm) nickel mineralisation including 558 ppm nickel over 63.1m from 10m downhole.
Managing director Richard Belcher added: “The cost-effective surface sampling undertaken by Tertiary in 2023, along with its spatial position near to FQM’s Trident project, confirmed the Mukai project as a high priority drill target for FQM.
“Given the limited drilling completed to date, and with only one hole testing the target units and much of the soil anomaly untested, we believe there is still much potential upside to this project.
“We are currently in discussions with FQM on the next steps for exploration.”