Dec 4 2010
African Metals Corporation (TSX VENTURE:AFR)(FRANKFURT:OWW) has provided an exploration update on its on drilling activities at its projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Luisha South Stockpile and Soil Geochemical RC Drill samples
In October 2010, Magnum Drilling Sprl completed a 42 hole, reverse circulation (RC) drilling program on top of the historic Luisha South open pit stockpile. The program produced 418 samples including QC controls from 383m of drilling. Mangum Drilling Sprl also completed a 4 hole (RC) drilling program to test regional copper in soil geochemical anomalies to the south and southeast of the open pit. The program produced 116 samples including QC controls from 200m of drilling.
All 534 samples were dispatched to ALS Laboratories in Johannesburg, South Africa, for sample processing and multi-element ICP analysis. Issues with official border customs and transit protocols at the Zambia-Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe-Republic of South Africa borders resulted in a two week delay in delivery of the samples to ALS. The border issues were mainly due to a backlog of trucks carrying copper blister from the DRC.
The samples are now being fast tracked by ALS and results are expected mid-December.
Luisha South Open Pit Diamond Drilling
Rubaco Sprl commenced a 1,000 meter NQ diamond core drilling program on the 17th October 2010. To date they have completed 5 holes in the base of the pit for 365.20 meters. Progress has been hindered by technical issues including, lack of drilling additives, water loss, single shift only for the first three weeks, and drill crews new to copper belt lithology's. Steps to rectify the issues have been implemented. Core recovery was maintained between 83% and 91%.
To expedite the drilling program, DrillTek Sprl was engaged to drill all the diamond holes planned for the outside of the open pit, whilst Rubaco continued drilling the holes designed for within the base of the pit. DrillTek Sprl commenced drilling on the 15th November 2010. To date they have completed 3 holes for 218.80 meters of NQ core, with >95% core recovery. DrillTek lost 3 days drilling out a broken core barrel, and have a 200m hole in progress.
The combined total of diamond drilling completed at the project is 584.00 meters.
All of the drill holes intersected consistent chalcopyrite and carrolite mineralization with visual estimates ranging from 0.5 to 3% chalcopyrite, locally up to 5%. Mineralization styles observed in the core include both syngenetic (bedding parallel fine pyrite lenses replaced by chalcopyrite and carrolite) and epigenetic (fracture and vein hosted sulphides). Core orientations are required to determine structural trends of the vein mineralization. Carrolite is a cobalt sulphide mineral composed of approximately 40% cobalt and 20% copper in its chemical makeup, the remaining percentages going to iron, sulphur and minor nickel. Carrolite is amenable to bio-leaching, and weathers to produce the high grade cobalt mineral heterogenite. The visual estimates of mineralization are comparable to those from the first round of RC drilling completed in June 2010, and AFR is confident of maintaining geological correlations between the holes.
Rubaco have approximately 3 holes (100m) to complete, all being shallow new ones in the base of and entrance to the open pit. DrillTek have approximately 6 tails (375m) to complete on the south side of the pit. If drilling performance and production continues improvement then up to 4 extra diamond holes may be drilled. AFR plans to have all drilling completed by mid-December, with core logging and core sampling continuing up to and over the festive season. Analytical results from SGS are expected early February to enable resource estimation by the end of February.
AFR will be keeping the market updated on progress as and when results become available during this phase of the development of the company.
Nigel Ferguson, AusIMM, President and CEO of the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has verified data disclosed in this release.
Source: African Metals Corporation