Cobre Ltd (ASX:CBE) will collaborate with successful global explorer and producer Sandfire Resources Ltd on a joint Airborne Gravity Gradient (AGG) survey over the company’s copper projects in the prolific Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana.
The company and Sandfire subsidiary Tshukudu Exploration (Pty) Ltd (TEX) have entered into a binding Heads of Agreement to procure AGC data over Cobre’s Ngami, Kitlanya West and Kitlanya East copper projects.
This survey will deliver a high-resolution understanding of density contrasts within the copper belt, allowing for detailed mapping of basement architecture and enhanced target generation and testing at regional to prospect scales.
50:50 cost spilt
The AGG survey over Cobre’s project areas will cost A$877,800, of which Sandfire will contribute 50% equating to A$438,900, in return for the right to use data to study basin-scale geology of the copper belt.
Cobre’s chief executive officer Adam Wooldridge said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Sandfire on the upcoming AGG survey over Cobre’s Ngami, Kitlanya West and East copper projects.
"This collaboration in exploration is extremely strategic, enabling both companies to gain access to shared data on the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana."
Proposed areas for the AGG survey.
Benefits for both
As part of the agreement, Cobre will collaborate with Sandfire in the identification of analogues to the A4 and T3 deposits within that company’s Motheo Production Hub.
The survey at a line spacing of 500 metres is expected to start this month and will be carried out by XCallibur Multiphysics using the Falcon Plus system.
It will provide detailed coverage over the 727-square-kilometre Ngami Copper Project, the 1,945-square-kilometre Kitlanya West Project and the 1,360-square-kilometre Kitlanya East Project.
On a regional scale, results are expected to provide significant insight into the underlying basement architecture providing information on Kalahari Copper Belt sub-basins, intra-basin highs, basin margins and controlling structures where copper-bearing fluids may be focused.
At a local scale, the detailed resolution offered by the system provides a means for targeting doubly-plunging anticlines in a similar setting to SFR’s T3, A4 and A1 deposits, as well as identifying controlling structures, jogs and disruptions which may result in local upgrading of copper-silver mineralisation.
To “advance geological understanding”
"In addition to significant cost-saving, undertaking the survey jointly with Sandfire’s experienced exploration team will advance our geological understanding of the KCB as a whole, while contributing significantly to improved targeting and identification of potential analogues to Sandfire’s neighbouring T3 and A4 deposits,” Wooldridge added.
Results from the AGG survey will be integrated with recently completed soil sampling at Ngami (,1634 samples) and Kitlanya West (5,359 samples) providing a means for delineating new priority areas for copper-silver mineralisation in this emerging district.
In the Kitlanya East Project, results will be used to identify analogues to the neighbouring T3 and A4 deposits.