A subsidiary of Aim- and TSX-V-listed Altus Resources has been granted a three-year exploration licence for the Zager copper/gold prospect in Ethiopia’s Tigray state.
The exploration licence, awarded to Altus subsidiary Altau Resources, covers 285 km2, which hosts 27 km of ophiolite belt within the Arabian Nubian Shield.
"The grant of [the Zager exploration licence] increases our strategic exploration holdings across the highly prospective Arabian Nubian Shield of northern Ethiopia to more than 877 km2.
“Altau selected the licence based on an in-house remote sensing study, which included an extensive review of historical geological data. These highlighted Zager's geological prospectivity and identified numerous artisanal alluvial gold workings,” said Altus CE Steven Poulton.
The Zager prospect is underlain by an almost identical geological terrane to that of Altau's Daro project, located 80 km to the east, where the company has rapidly discovered a number of encouraging copper and gold targets.
The geology of this region hosts the Bisha mine owned by Zijin Mining and the Asmara project owned by Sichuan Road & Bridge Mining Investment Development Corporation, in Eritrea, about 135 km north and northeast of Zager, respectively.
Zager is also just 10 km northwest of the Harvest project, which is being advanced by TSX-V-listed East Africa Metals.
Altau had identified priority exploration targets and artisanal gold workings and confirmed that first phase reconnaissance and sampling programmes would start imminently.