MOD Resources recovers visible copper near surface in Botswana
MOD Resources has found “potentially significant widths” of visible copper during drilling at the T23 Dome target.
Copper explorer and developer MOD Resources (ASX: MOD) has cheered the “immediate success” of its exploration drilling campaign in Botswana, finding visible copper near the surface at the large T23 Dome.
The company today reported “potentially significant widths” of visible copper mineralisation at a “very shallow depth” from the first two diamond core drill holes of its ongoing drilling program in the Kalahari Copper Belt.
T23 Dome is the first new target to be drilled in the northern part of MOD’s T20 exploration project and is now the sixth substantial new copper find on the company’s landholdings in three years.
MOD managing director Julian Hanna said the immediate success of finding copper near surface at T23 Dome not only confirms the target’s prospectivity, “it also opens up the wider potential of the extensive T20 exploration project, dominated by a wide, 60km long zone of copper and zinc soil anomalies which are as yet undrilled”.
According to MOD, the first two drill holes intersected several zones of secondary copper (malachite and chrysocolla) in fractures and narrow veins starting just below the surface.
The company is awaiting assays to confirm the visible intersections and drilling is in progress to test specific structural targets interpreted from magnetic and electromagnetic data within the previously undrilled dome.
T23 Dome is located about 15km west of the T4 prospect, where MOD returned a high-grade intersection of 2m at 6.1% copper and 111 grams per tonne of silver from 101M depth during a reverse circulation drilling campaign in 2016.
“The early results from T23 Dome and previous drilling success at T4 in early 2016 suggest this could be another copper rich region, in addition to the prolific T3 region 100km to the east,” Mr Hanna said.
MOD also announced plans to start drilling at the T4 prospect “as soon as possible”.
UK listing
Meanwhile, MOD is targeting 26 November as the date it will start trading on the London Stock Exchange after the UK Listing Authority approved and published its prospectus on Monday.
The company will be listed under the same ticker code of MOD and will retain its existing ASX listing as its primary listing. It will not be raising equity capital at the time of the LSE listing, it stated.
According to MOD, the dual listing is intended to enhance the international profile of the company and “improve access to UK and European institutional investors during this period of rapid activity and growth”.
“There are very few copper developers and producers on the LSE and this listing provides an opportunity for MOD to be exposed to a far broader investment market at a time of rising copper demand and falling inventories,” the company stated.
Feasibility study
MOD’s primary focus is the development of its wholly-owned T3 copper project, for which a feasibility study is due for completion in the first quarter of 2019.
The study is based on an open pit copper mine with an expanded process plant throughput of 3 million tonnes per annum, plus allowance for a possible future staged expansion.
Shares in MOD Resources rose more than 6% to $0.35 on today’s news by afternoon trade.