Cobre Ltd (ASX:CBE) has kicked off diamond drilling at its wholly owned Ngami Copper Project (NCP) in Botswana's Kalahari Copperbelt.
The program, which will include around 4,800 metres of diamond drilling, follows recently completed hydrogeological and metallurgical test-work.
“We’re delighted to be drilling again at Ngami Copper Project,” Cobre CEO Adam Wooldridge said.
“This important program will provide the resource estimates and further hydrogeological test-work to support our ongoing in-situ copper recovery (ISCR) development journey.
Diamond drill rig ready to commence 2024 drill program at the Ngami Copper Project.
Exploration drilling begins
The drilling program has been designed to test for extensions to mineralisation to the northeast of the Comet Target (NYSE:TGT) with a view to including several kilometres of prospective untested strike into the exploration target.
“We’re particularly excited to target some of the untested blue-sky along strike from the Comet Target which could further expand on the significant strike length of drill-proven mineralisation on this project,” Wooldridge said.
Infill drilling to follow
The exploration target is currently estimated at between 103-166 million tonnes at 0.38-0.46% copper.
The program will also involve detailed infill drilling in order to convert around 10-20% of the exploration target into indicated and inferred resource categories following completion of a mineral resource estimate.
Cobre expects to make a decision on the final infill drill program once the exploration holes are complete.
Locality map highlighting the area of interest.
Ngami Copper Project
The Ngami Copper Project area is near the northern margin of the Kalahari Copperbelt and includes a significant strike of sub-cropping Ngwako Pan/D’Kar Formation contact on which the majority of the known deposits in the Kalahari Copperbelt occur.
Drilling results to date have returned consistent, wide intersections of anomalous to moderate-grade copper-silver values over extensive strike lengths with smaller structurally controlled higher-grade zones.
Cobre is aiming to prove up a similar ISCR process to Taseko Mines’ 320 million tonnes at 0.36% copper Florence Copper Deposit and Copper Fox’s 265.6 million tonnes at 0.29% copper Van Dyke Deposit in Arizona, which both share a similar scale to the Ngami Copper Project.