JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A significant zone of visible copper sulphide mineralisation has been intersected down-dip of a wide zone of high-grade copper mineralisation intersected last year.

The intersection has taken place during the first resource-optimisation drill hole completed at the Okiep copper project Flat Mine East prospect, located in South Africa’s well-endowed Northern Cape.
 
The drill hole was designed to test an open zone in the block model, 36 m down-dip of previously reported high-grade mineralisation.

The 7.88 m zone of significant visible copper sulphide mineralisation is from a 311.26 m down hole.

The new intersection confirms that the highly prospective mafic norite and previously confirmed significant copper mineralisation continues down-dip beyond the current indicated resource envelope.

The latest results add further momentum to the development strategy of the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed Orion Minerals for the Okiep copper project.

“Our ongoing drilling at the Okiep Project continues to demonstrate strong resource growth potential, particularly down-dip of previously intersected wide, high-grade copper mineralisation,” Orion MD and CEO Tony Lennox commented in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Importantly, the newly intersected mineralisation remains open down-dip, which Orion is targeting with the next drill hole.

“While we remain cautious ahead of laboratory assays, these early observations provide further encouragement regarding the continuity and scale of the mineralised system beyond the current resource envelope.

“These latest results reinforce the quality and growth potential of the Flat Mines area as a cornerstone of Orion’s broader Okiep development strategy. We look forward to reporting assay results in approximately three weeks,” added Lennox, a former leading light of Palabora Mining Company, which operates a copper smelter and copper refinery complex in South Africa’s Limpopo province.

The current drilling programme in the Northern Cape’s Flat Mines area fall within the executed mining right, which is surrounded by granted prospecting rights, which host several historically drilled prospects and historical mines that offer the potential for additional mineral resources through future drilling.

The results reported in this announcement continue to demonstrate the potential to extend or in-fill partially drilled zones of high-grade mineralisation in the currently reported mineral resource. Furthermore, a structural control model for the high-grade mineralisation is being developed to enable targeted follow-up drilling where the mafic unit is affected.

South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has agreed conversion of its convertible loan facility to Orion Minerals into equity.

Orion is reviving the fully permitted Prieska copper/zinc mine (PCZM) in South Africa’s Northern Cape, which last operated in 1991, with a mining resource of 31-million tonnes at 1.2% copper and 3.6% zinc.

The equity will be in Orion’s subsidiary, PCZM HoldCo, in accordance with the loan facility agreement dated February 2023 and the implementation agreement executed on Tuesday, March 31. Following completion of the equity conversion, the IDC will hold 23.8% of PCZM HoldCo, an effective interest of 16.7% in PCZM and retain a shareholder loan of R272.4-million.

Meanwhile, BHP Xplor is looking to provide longer-term exploration potential in the Northern Cape.

The BHP entity’s series of workshops to promote and support greater intelligence and collaboration in minerals exploration in key mining jurisdictions in sub-Saharan Africa will also uplift discovery potential.

The workshops are directed not only at junior mining and exploration companies but also at the region’s academic institutions that maintain strong geoscience, mining engineering, and innovation programmes.

Shared is BHP’s view of global mineral systems, exploration methodology, and geoscience, its Xplor programme as well as innovative thinking.