African Copper climbs on Matsitama high-grade

Some impressive initial drill results on the Matsitama Schist belt in Botswana has prompted London-based explorer African Copper (ACU-T, ACU-L) to update feasibility studies of the advanced Thakadu and Makala deposits.

Late last year, the company tested each deposit with a single hole aimed at confirming geology, mineralization, and copper and silver grades. Drilling at Thakadu yielded 4.45% copper and 1.97 oz. silver per tonne over a true width of 12.74 metres, beginning 32.8 metres downhole. Makala surrendered a 6.24-metre interval running 2.64% copper and 2.52 oz. silver, from 144.2 metres downhole.

The two deposits sit about 2 km apart, and some 70 km southeast of the company’s Dukwe copper project. The concession measures some 4,000 sq. km. The primary disseminated-to-massive copper sulphide mineralization is chalcopyrite, zoning out to chalcopyrite-bornite-chalcocite to pyrite, with secondary supergene enrichment in malachite, cuprite-tenorite, chrysocolla and azurite.

Both deposits were tested by some 39,000 metres worth of percussion and diamond drilling in 156 holes by previous operators in the early 1980s and 1990s. A 70-metre deep shaft on each deposit also facilitated a total of 620 metres of lateral development and 882 metres of underground diamond drilling. Some 3 tonnes of oxide and sulphide material was collected for bench-scale metallurgical tests, which indicate copper recovery in the 90%-96% range by flotation to produce a sulphide concentrate containing 28%-32% copper and around 250 grams silver per tonne. Another 180 tonnes of sulphide material was used for hydrogeological, geotechnical, and mineralogical tests, and run through a pilot plant.

The work saw four feasibility studies completed, and a fully permitted mining licence granted over the concession in the early 1990s. A mine was never built owing to low throughput rates dictated by a lack of power, water and workers. The resulting proposed mine life ran about 20 years.

Historical “in-situ” resources total 4.85 milllion tonnes running 2.71% copper at Thakadu-Makala. A third deposit, Naklakwana, was estimated at 11 million tonnes grading 0.63% copper.

African Copper says the infrastructure and availability of workers in the area has improved since then. In anticipation of a new feasibility study, the company plans a three-rig drill program on the 4-km strike length of favourable stratigraphy over the next 8 months.

Previous drilling to a vertical depth of around 550 metres returned well-mineralized material, suggesting down-dip potential. Limited geophysical and geochemical surveying, trenching, and mapping suggests the favourable folded stratigraphy is probably continuous between the two deposits, and that mineralization may extend for up to 2 km to the west of Makala.

looking ahead, the Matsitama licence also contains at least 4 large mineralized targets, tens of kilometres in strike length, and more than 170 untested copper and zinc anomalies.

Shares in African Copper continued their recent strong run, finishing another 24, or 14%, better at $1.94 in Toronto following the news on Jan. 30. The shares have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and are up 85% since listing for trade in Toronto on July 19.