Tag Archives: Mwashia Resources Ltd

The Board of Tertiary Minerals plc (AIM: TYM) is pleased to announce audited results for the year ended 30 September 2022.

Operational Summary:

ZAMBIA

• Completed first full year of exploration in Zambia targeting copper, the key energy transition metal.
• Data sharing and technical cooperation agreement signed with First Quantum Minerals (“FQM”) covering Tertiary’s Mukai and Mushima North Project Interests.
• Earned 90% interest in Jacks Copper Project from local partner Mwashia Resources Ltd (“Mwashia”); holding option to earn 90% in four other licence areas from Mwashia.
• Planning underway for the 2023 exploration and drill programmes.

Jacks Copper Project, Zambia

• Four diamond drill holes completed at original Jacks prospect; significant copper mineralisation intersected in all four diamond drillholes.
• Copper mineralisation has now been intersected over a strike length of 350m and remains open along strike and at depth.
• Over 2,000 soil samples collected on four grids; multiple soil anomalies defined by provisional portable XRF field analysis; results compare favourably with soil anomalies in the vicinity of various ore zones at current and past producing mines on the Copperbelt.

Other Projects, Zambia

• Initial prospectivity reviews completed by consultant Remote Exploration Services (RES) of South Africa, based on historical data; exploration planning underway with initial priority targets defined at:
• The Mukai Project. Directly adjacent to FQM’s Trident Project which includes the large Sentinel Copper Mine and the recently opened Enterprise Nickel Mine. Mine host stratigraphy can be traced into the Mukai Licence where there are both copper and nickel geochemical anomalies.
• The Mushima North Project. Prospective primarily for iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation. 1960s historical drilling encountered wide zones of low-grade copper-sulphide mineralisation.

NEVADA

Brunton Pass Copper Project

• Programmes of trenching, sampling, geochemical analysis, petrological evaluation and field follow up completed.
• Wide intervals of low-grade copper observed in trenches in association with widespread garnet-pyroxene skarn alteration adjacent to diorite intrusives.
• Trenching of 1.2km long zone of mercury-arsenic soil anomalies intersected substantial widths of hydrothermally altered rock with approximately 1,000 times background content of the gold indicator elements, arsenic and mercury.
• Drilling now planned to test targets for copper skarn and epithermal precious metal mineralisation.

For more information please contact:

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure:

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 which forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (“MAR”). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (“RIS”), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Notes:

2. The information in this release has been reviewed by Mr. Patrick Cheetham (MIMMM, M.Aus.IMM), Executive Chairman of Tertiary Minerals plc, who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr. Cheetham is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining and also a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy. 
3. The news release may contain certain statements and expressions of belief, expectation or opinion which are forward looking statements, and which relate, inter alia, to the Company’s proposed strategy, plans and objectives or to the expectations or intentions of the Company’s directors. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors beyond the control of the Company that could cause the actual performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not rely on any forward-looking statements and save as required by the AIM Rules for Companies or by law, the Company does not accept any obligation to disseminate any updates or revisions to such forward-looking statements.

Chairman’s Statement

Dear Shareholder,

It is with great pleasure that I present the Annual Report for the year ended 30 September 2022. This has been our first full year of exploration for copper in Zambia and a year of very pleasing progress on a number of fronts.

We continue to pursue a strategic focus on copper, a key energy transition metal in the new green economy, and on precious metals. We remain bullish on the outlook for the copper price and the associated market sentiment that has supported our exploration efforts, and which we expect will reward exploration success. This view is based on increasing long-term demand for copper and projections of a future supply deficit, albeit that demand has been tempered in the short term by weaker Chinese demand due to restrictive Covid policies. Precious metal prices have been subdued this year, in US Dollar terms, due to the strength of the US Dollar and following aggressive interest rate rises imposed by the US Federal Reserve. That said, years of inflationary money printing around the world supports a view that the gold price is set for a rerating.

In Zambia we work through our 96% owned Zambian subsidiary, Tertiary Minerals (Zambia) Limited (“TMZ”) and have interests in five projects through various agreements with our local partner, Mwashia Resources Ltd (“Mwashia”). Mwashia has been instrumental in the tribal and stakeholder engagement process that has allowed for the smooth running of our exploration in Zambia to date.

This exploration has focused on the Jacks Copper Project (”Jacks”) where TMZ now holds a 90% joint venture interest and an option to move to 100% ownership. Our inaugural drilling programme at Jacks was successful with all four holes hitting copper mineralisation. When considered alongside historical drilling, this work has so far demonstrated mineralisation over a 350m strike length open in both directions and at depth.

We also carried out a large soil sampling programme at Jacks, collecting over 2,000 samples on four detailed grids to follow up unresolved copper-in-soil anomalies identified in wide spaced sampling by previous explorers. We are delighted with the results obtained to date which, although provisional, have defined multiple soil anomalies, mainly in favourable Lower Roan stratigraphy, that are of the same order of magnitude as those reported to occur in the vicinity of ore-zones at past and currently operating mines elsewhere in the Copperbelt. The results also extend the target area at the original Jacks copper prospect.

During the year we have been assessing data and the exploration priorities for our other project interests in Zambia whilst awaiting the approval of Environmental Project Briefs (“EPBs”) to allow the start of exploration. Two of these EPBs were recently granted and the approval process for the remaining EPBs is at an advanced stage.

Our assessment process was boosted recently when we signed a data sharing and technical cooperation agreement with global copper company First Quantum Minerals Limited (“FQM”) to work collaboratively with respect to advancing exploration and development of the Company’s Mukai and Mushima North projects.  As a result, we are set to benefit from FQM’s extensive and in-depth country experience, gained over many years of exploration and mine development in Zambia and, importantly, its site-specific historical exploration data in and around these two exciting projects.

Our Mukai licence, in the Domes region of northwest Zambia, is strategically located, being surrounded by FQM’s Trident Project licences which cover the large producing Sentinel copper mine and the newly developed Enterprise nickel mine. We are also located just east of Arc Minerals’ Zambia Copper-Cobalt Project where Anglo American is set to earn a 70% interest for expenditure of US$88,500,000. At Mushima North our targets are for copper and gold.

Whilst our exploration operations in Nevada have yielded mixed results, we remain enthusiastic about our project portfolio in Nevada and have further drill programmes planned for 2023. This includes drilling at our Brunton Pass Copper-Gold Project where a successful programme of trenching uncovered substantial widths of skarn mineralisation anomalous in copper and hydrothermally altered rock with up to 1,000x background values for gold pathfinder elements, mercury and antimony, at two locations 900m apart and with gold values up to 2.65g/t gold. We are now targeting a high sulphidation epithermal gold deposit which we believe has been overprinted on a copper skarn system which itself may also suggest the presence of a larger porphyry copper target nearby.

A drilling programme earlier this year at our Pyramid Gold-Silver Project in Nevada failed to demonstrate the continuity at depth of widespread silver values found at surface and the decision was made to cut losses, terminate our lease and return the property to the underlying owner.

In August we signed an agreement to sell our royalty interests in the Kaaresselkä and Kiekerömaa Gold Projects in Finland which completes our exit from projects in Finland, but as a result we will retain a small shareholding in Aurion Resources Ltd and follow with interest its progress at the Risti and Helmi gold discoveries in Finland which continue to deliver exciting exploration results close to Rupert Resources’ 4 million ounce Ikkari gold discovery.

A more detailed discussion of our exploration programmes and results can be found in our Operating Review.

Our Annual General Meeting for the year ended 30 September 2022 will be held in London on 16 February 2023. We encourage shareholders who cannot attend to appoint the Chairman as their proxy.

At the AGM I will be standing for re-election and we will be proposing the usual Ordinary Resolution to allow for the issue of shares and a Special Resolution to allow for the issue of shares other than by way of a rights issue. It is very important that these resolutions are passed as the Company is currently reliant on raising funds periodically from the market by placing shares to fund its exploration business and to continue as a going concern.

We are eager to continue our exploration in Nevada and to get back on the ground in Zambia as soon as the wet season is over, and we look forward to reporting back to shareholders on a full programme of exploration in 2023.

Patrick Cheetham

Executive Chairman

8 December 2022