Discovery Metals Limited has been granted additional four prospecting licenses in a move that will give the company a muscle as it continues to scour for minerals around the Ghanzi area.
The copper exploration/development outfit and near-term copper producer is currently developing its 100 percent owned Boseto Copper Project towards production in the first half of 2012.
In an update, the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listed company said the new licences are estimated to contain at least 250 km of the prospective horizon that is host to the copper deposits at Boseto.
“Historical soil geochemical sampling identified a zone of anomalous copper more than 10 kilometres long located on the same prospective horizon that hosts the copper-silver mineralisation discovered to date in the Kalahari Copperbelt,” Discovery MD Brad Sampson said.
“This anomalous zone sits within one of the four new contiguous PLs granted to Discovery Metals and provides an immediate exploration target in addition to the rest of the 250 kilometres of prospective horizon contained within these four PLs that remain largely unexplored,” he said.
The new Prospecting Licences (PLs) in the Kgalagadi Copperbelt of North West Botswana are situated within the vicinity of the D’Kar and Ghanzi communities and will be referred to by the company as the D’Kar Prospecting Licences.
The company said the D’kar PLs increase the company’s total landholding in the Kgalagadi Copperbelt to 11,872 square kilometres, containing in excess of 1,500 kilometres of strike length of the prospective horizon.
The prospective horizon is located at the contact of the Ngwako Pan Formation and the D’kar Formation and is host to most of the known copper resources in the Kgalagadi Copperbelt in Botswana.
Discovery Metals now has prospecting licences covering 11,872 km2 along the Kgalagadi Copperbelt.
Kgalagadi Copperbelt landholding is now 11,872 km2 containing 1,500 strike kilometres of the prospective horizon.
Formation and the D’kar Formation and is host to most of the known copper resources in the Kgalagadi Copperbelt in Botswana.
In the early 2000s, Delta Gold Ltd completed a campaign of regional conventional soil geochemistry at approximately five kilometres spaced lines over portions of the Kgalagadi Copperbelt.
According to Discovery Metals, this work successfully identified copper in soil anomalism over the Zeta and the Banana Zone (Hana Mining) deposits.
“This same phase of work also identified a copper in soil anomaly extending over 10 kilometres along the prospective horizon within the recently granted D’kar PLs. One portion of this zone of anomalous copper is approximately 400 metres wide with nine sample points all exceeding 100ppm copper,” Discovery said in an update to investors.
This zone of anomalous copper is located approximately 10 kilometres off the main Trans Kgalagadi Highway which links Botswana with the major port of Walvis Bay in neighbouring Namibia to the west.
Exploration work already completed by Discovery Metals indicates that sand cover across the majority of the D’Kar PLs is less than 25 metres and therefore standard soil geochemical methods are expected to be appropriate for the first phase of exploration.
The Company’s regional exploration programme in the Kgalagadi Copperbelt continues with a goal to discover new zones of copperÔÇôsilver mineralisation that will form the basis for a new standalone mine in the region. Exploration activity is anticipated to progress into the D’Kar PLs in the latter part of 2012.
