Asian Battery Metals PLC (ASX:ASBM) has outlined an aggressive exploration plan for its portfolio of mineral projects in Mongolia with an initial focus on the Oval Copper-Nickel (Yambat) Project after this week being reinstated to quotation on the ASX.
The company has moved quickly to begin the 2024 exploration program with mobilisation of the exploration camp to the Yambat Exploration Licence area and drill rigs to be mobilised next week for diamond drilling.
To support drill design geophysical crews have completed field data acquisition, data processing and interpretation with analysis expected to finish before the start of the phase 1 drilling program.
To build on discovery
Asian Battery Metals managing director Gan-Ochir Zunduisuren said: "We are excited to commence our 2024 exploration program at the Oval Copper-Nickel (Yambat) Project and to build on the fresh discovery that our team achieved in 2023.
"With a strong technical team and numerous exploration targets for advancing in 2024, we are encouraged by the potential for delivering additional value to all stakeholders.”
The location of company licences in Mongolia.
The Oval Copper-Nickel Project is a new discovery of a magmatic copper-nickel sulphide mineral system situated in the southwestern part of the country covered by a 100-square-kilometre area.
Drilling at Oval
Drilling in 2024 will target expansion and continuation of the mineralisation intersected in the previous scout drilling campaign in 2023.
Phase 1 diamond drilling of 2,500 metres by Bayan Undarga Drilling LLC using two diamond drill rigs will target an extension of the mineralisation around drill hole OVD-009, which intersected mineralisation in the previous scout drilling of 73 metres at 0.59% copper, 0.42% nickel and 0.2 g/t E3 from 127 metres.
The main objectives of the planned work will be testing for an expansion of currently identified mineralisation, the immediate but deeper continuation to the southeast direction and an understanding of the broader geophysical anomalies found in the gravity, magnetic of gradient 2023 IP surveys.
To support drill design, the team has acquired additional geophysical data including PDIP (pole dipole induced polarisation) and CSAMT/AMT that were completed in June 2024.
Currently, the survey data sets are being processed and analysed by Magtec LLC (Ulaanbaatar Mongolia) and Ronacher McKenzie LLP (Sudbury, Canada).
In addition, geological mapping using outcrop mapping techniques and structural geological review is underway. The combined data will complement the drilling campaign.
Other Oval targets
The company intends to advance other known geophysical targets at the project, including MS1 and MS2, to the drilling stage with systematic exploration.
Exploration will also seek to define drill targets within the broader mineral exploration tenement for additional mineralised magmatic intrusives.
Asian Battery Metals is also planning a follow-up phase 2 drilling program at the Oval Project in the fourth quarter of 2024.
While this project does not lie within a previously known belt of magmatic copper-nickel-PGE deposits, it is considered to be prospective for this style of mineralisation as the geology and age of intrusion are consistent with known analogues throughout the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.
Other projects
After the program at Oval, the company is planning exploration programs on other Mongolian projects by the end of the year.
These will include a drilling program in the third quarter aimed at obtaining samples for detailed metallurgical testing and anode suitability testing at the Khukh Tag Graphite Project.
Phase 2 trenching and subsequently a maiden drill program of 1000 metres is also being planned at the Tsagaan Ders Lithium Project next quarter.
“Well-positioned”
"Sited next to China, the world’s largest copper concentrate consumer and the most mature market for EV battery materials production, Asian Battery Metals is well-positioned to take advantage of long-term market fundamentals, the managing director said.
"We look forward to providing updates on progress and results from our 2024 exploration program throughout the upcoming season."