ENRG Elements (ASX: EEL) shareholders will be keeping a close watch on the company’s two joint venture (JV) partners in Botswana after the pair confirmed the launch of separate drill campaigns in the southern African nation.
Kavango Resources set to test 15 targets at its Karakubis project that sits within the renowned Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB), while Arc Minerals has kicked off a new 3000m program at its Virgo project along the central structural corridor of the KCB where it will assess promising targets revealed by an induced-polarisation (IP) survey.
ENRG holds a 10 per cent slice of the Karakubis project and 25 per cent of the Virgo play following separate deals with the pair of London Stock Exchange-listed companies.
Kavango says the drillholes at Karakubis have been designed to test trap sites modelled from recent geophysical work conducted at the deposit, in addition to confirming the stratigraphy of its ground. The campaign will run the rule over the copper-silver potential within the project area and management believes the targets sit above doubly-plunging fold structures over gravity highs where associated faulting is favorable for trap sites.
The first-phase drill program of about 5000m will test relatively shallow targets between 150m and 350m below surface. Kavango notes that further priority targets are expected to be highlighted from data processing and survey results from its Survey Blocks 1A and 1B.
The objective of the drill program is to prove the existence of a copper-silver mineralised system by identifying pathfinder minerals and verifying structural trap sites.
We’ve assembled a wide-ranging and comprehensive data set over Karakubis. We’ve then compared the results of this with what is known about major discoveries elsewhere on the Kalahari Copper Belt. Finally, we believe we’ve identified the correct regional structures and trap sites for large-scale copper/silver deposits.
Kavango Resources CEO Ben Turney
Arc’s recent IP survey confirmed potential targets along two distinct trends of high-chargeability, with an unknown anomaly discovered at depth. The sizeable anomaly of high-chargeability and low-resistivity is almost begging to be drilled and will be tested as part of 2250m of drilling across one of the company’s licences.
Initially a reverse-circulation (RC) rig will be used to break through the Kalahari sand cover, followed by diamond drilling down to the anomaly at depth.
Arc says the plan is to drill 930m of RC and 1320m of diamond drilling. A further 750m of RC drilling is planned at its second licence area to test a soil geochemical anomaly that trends for 5km along the south-western boundary and an interpreted syncline in the north-eastern section of the licence.
The renowned KCB stretches 1000km from north-east Botswana into Namibia and has become a focal point for the discovery of sediment-hosted copper deposits. The total resources to date exceed 8 million tonnes of contained copper.
So, both Kavango and Arc appear to be are in the right area for a worthwhile copper discovery and ENRG’s decision to maintain a share in the pair of projects to stay involved in the red metal game may well prove to be a wise one.
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