Exploration is the lifeblood of the world’s metal supply but economic deposits are becoming harder to find and sometimes even harder to exploit. Here’s a look at four companies determined to find the mines we need for the future. Another four companies under the global exploration banner are to follow in a separate posting.
Awalé Resources
Awalé Resources (TSXV: ARIC) is advancing its Odienné copper-gold project in Côte d’Ivoire, about 400 km northwest of the capital, Yamoussoukro, and 600 km northwest of the commercial capital, Abidjan.
The 2,346-sq.km project includes the Odienné East and West, Sienso, Sama and Seydou permits. Randgold Resources initially explored the project in the mid-1990s and completed shallow, broad-spaced soil sampling, along with pitting and trenching and infill geochemical sampling and mapping. Despite gold and base metal anomalies, Randgold did not start a drill program.
Awalé picked up the first two of its permits in 2017 and embarked on a systematic exploration campaign incorporating data from Randgold’s work. High-grade drill results attracted Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), which in July 2022 entered an earn-in joint venture over the Odienné East and West permits. Newmont can earn up to 65% of the JV and has an option to acquire an additional 10% stake held by Africa New Geological Technologies.
The JV has found gold, gold-copper, and gold-copper-silver-molybdenum mineralized systems on its 797-sq.-km permit area including the BBM, Charger, Empire, Sceptre and Lando targets.
In last year’s fourth quarter, Awalé launched a 100,000-metre resource definition and discovery program through 2026. The company plans to complete a resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in this year’s second quarter and to advance the project to a prefeasibility study in 2027, encompassing the BBM, Charger and Empire Zones.
Awalé reported the first results in January. Highlight assays from Charger included 9 metres grading 52.8 grams gold per tonne starting from 354 metres in CHDD-03; 7 metres at 10.6 grams gold from 320 metres in CHDD-02; and 4 metres of 17.6 grams gold from 297 metres in CHDD-04.
Awalé believes Odienné contains potential for the discovery of the first major iron oxide copper gold deposit in West Africa. Previous drilling returned 75 metres of 1.8 grams gold and 0.34% copper from 242 metres in hole OEDD-74 at BBM, an 8-km-long copper-gold anomalous corridor; and 15 metres grading 13.1 grams gold from 69 metres depth in hole OEDD-24 at the Empire target, a 20-km-long gold corridor.
At Sceptre East, copper targets have yielded 358.5 metres of 0.05 gram gold, 0.16% copper, 2.6 grams silver and 195 parts per million (ppm) molybdenum from 6.5 metres in drill hole OEDD-43.
Fortuna Mining (TSX: FVI; NYSE: FSM) has a 15% stake in the junior.
Awalé Resources has a market cap of about $78 million.
Cobre
Cobre (ASX: CBE) holds the second-largest tenement package in Botswana’s Kalahari Copper Belt and is advancing three exploration projects, two of which are in strategic partnerships with major producers.
At its Kitlanya West and East project, Cobre is working with BHP Xplor, BHP’s (NYSE; ASX; LSE: BHP) global minerals exploration accelerator program. Last March, BHP committed up to $25 million for the right to earn a 75% stake in the project. The initial $7-million work program includes several deep (about 1 km) diamond holes combined with 2-D seismic surveys.
At its Okavango project, Cobre has identified three anomalous copper-silver zones, with intersections including vein-hosted mineralization. Cobre has a partnership at Okavango with China’s Sinomine Resource Group, which has an option to acquire 70% of the project for a period of six months after drilling is complete. Okavango is on strike and northeast of the Khoemacau underground copper-silver mine owned by China’s MMG.
Its third asset, Ngami, is an in-situ recovery (ISR) copper project. The company has completed 20,000 metres of diamond drillilng and proven chalcocite mineralization over 40 km. Intersections include 31 metres grading 1.2% copper and 17 grams silver starting from 128 metres in drill hole NCP20A; 10.7 metres grading 1.3% copper and 18 grams silver from 136.2 metres downhole in NCP08; and 20.05 metres at 0.85% copper and 19.6 grams silver starting from 146 metres downhole, including a 10-metre-intercept averaging 1.3% copper and 28 grams silver in hole NCP55.
Ngami’s Comet deposit has a resource of 1.1 million indicated tonnes grading 0.59% copper and 12.8 grams silver for 6,700 tonnes contained copper and 500,000 oz. silver. Inferred resources total 10.4 million tonnes grading 0.52% copper and 11.5 grams silver for 53,600 tonnes copper and 3.8 million oz. silver.
In January, Cobre started building a production wellfield, the first stage of its demonstration plant. The wellfield will include four new vertical production wells plus an underlying horizontal well. The wellfield will enable the company to model the injected fluid flow using water before building the demonstration plant.
Last September, the company reported positive results from a bench-scale ISR solvent-extraction-electrowinning (SW-EW) program, which produced copper cathode. Peak copper extraction recoveries of about about 85%-86% were achieved.
Cobre has a market cap of A$73 million ($51 million).
Electrum Discovery
Electrum Discovery (TSXV: ELY; US-OTC: ELDCF) is exploring the Timok East copper-gold project in Eastern Serbia, 250 km from Belgrade, and the Novo Tlamino porphyry copper-gold project in southeastern Serbia, near the border with Macedonia.
Electrum has identified a copper-gold anomaly from soil and rock chip sampling at East Timok, with grades of 2.85% copper and 0.32 gram gold. The anomaly, called Bambino, measures 550 metres in length and over 100 metres in width. The 123-sq.-km Timok East project is adjacent to Zijin Mining’s operations at Bor, Veliki, Krivel, Cukari Peki and Majdanpek.
After acquiring the 522-sq.-km Novo Tlamino project in 2016, Electrum completed soil sampling, Induced Polarization geophysics, and surface and underground channel sampling, returning intervals of 84 metres grading 5.6 grams gold and 105.2 grams silver and 52 metres of 2.2 grams gold and 88 grams silver.
The company also completed 55 diamond drill holes (9,000 metres) returning near-surface intervals from the Barje prospect including 30 metres of 5.45 grams gold, 13.35 metres of 5.06 grams gold; and 38.2 metres of 3.9 grams gold. Electrum completed an inferred resource on Barje in 2020 measuring 7.1 million tonnes grading 2.5 grams gold and 38 grams silver for 570,000 oz. contained gold and 8.8 million oz. silver.
A PEA for Barje in 2021 envisioned an open pit mine producing 390,000 oz. gold and 4.02 million oz. silver over an eight-year life. Initial capital costs were pegged at $74.2 million. The study estimated an after-tax net present value (at an 8% discount rate) of $86 million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 46% for Barje.
In January, Electrum announced an all-share merger of equals with Minrex Resources (ASX: MRR). Under the deal, Electrum shareholders will own 49.3% of the combined company’s shares, which will be called Minrex.
Minrex holds the Sofala gold project in New South Wales, Australia. Sofalo consists of two sites, Spring Gully, which has an historical resource of 9.48 million inferred tonnes grading 1.06 grams gold for 323,900 oz. of contained gold and the Surface Hill prospect, with 808,012 inferred tonnes grading 1.09 grams gold for 28,300 ounces.
If the deal closes, the combined company’s priority is to infill drill the Barje deposit and update the resource and PEA.
Electrum Discovery has a market cap of about $14.7 million.
GreenX Metals
GreenX Metals (ASX,LSE: GRX) is focused on its projects in Greenland and Germany. In Eastern Greenland, the company has identified outcropping gold along with antimony and tungsten at its Eleonore North project’s Noa prospect. Antimony mineralization has been identified along a 4-km trend in veins and structures that broadly align with previously identified gold veining at surface within a 15-km trend.
Previous exploration had focused on orogenic gold mineralization, meaning that reduced intrusion-related gold systems (RIRGS) were overlooked. But GreenX believes the Noa prospect could host RIRGS targets analogous to large bulk-tonnage deposit types found in Canada such as Donlin Creek, Fort Knox and Dublin Gulch.
Historical individual specimens at Noa have graded up to 23% antimony and up to 4 grams gold, while historical sampling of outcropping veins returned a 14-metre-long chip grading 7.2% antimony and 0.53 gram gold.
At the project’s Margeries prospects, historical resource estimates include 83,000 tonnes grading 4.6% antimony and 32,000 tonnes grading 1% tungsten at North Margeries and 58,000 tonnes of 3.2% tungsten at South Margeries. The Margeries targets are all within 10 km of fjords allowing ready shipping access.
In Germany, GreenX completed its earn-in for a 90% stake of the Tannenberg copper project late last year. The 1,900-sq.-km brownfield project hosts sediment-hosted (Kupferschiefer-type) copper-silver deposits. Tannenberg’s style of mineralization is comparable to the Kupferschiefer deposits of Poland, where KGHM operates one of the world’s largest copper-silver mining districts.
A 1940 historic resource based on drilling across four zones (Ronshausen, Honebach, Wolfsberg and Schnepfenbusch) identified 1.61 billion lb. contained copper at an average grade of 2.6%. The drilling targeted only the thin Kupferschiefer horizon.
A subsequent historical resource in 1984 demonstrated consistent grades of 2.1% copper plus 25 grams silver, with 169,000 tonnes contained copper and 6.5 million oz. silver.
GreenX Metals has a market cap of about A$298 million ($207 million).
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