Robert Friedland and Yufeng ‘Miles’ Sun, Co-Chairmen of TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines, have announced that drilling in the central part of the Kamoa North Bonanza Zone at the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the DRC has returned another visually spectacular intersection of thick, ultra-high-grade copper mineralisation.
While assays for the hole (DD1571) are pending, Niton (X-ray fluorescence or XRF) analysis on core from the hole returned copper grades of 18,0 % over 18,86 m, at a 2 % copper cut-off grade, beginning at a down-hole depth of 209 m. These Niton readings make this the highest-grade intersection ever drilled on the Kamoa-Kakula project.
Ivanhoe cautions that Niton XRF readings are not the same as laboratory assays and are not an estimate of resource grades prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. However, based on more than 1 570 holes drilled to date at the Kamoa-Kakula project and the high degree of correlation between Niton XRF readings and assay results, the company says it is confident that these data readings are highly useful in confirming and shaping the next stage of the delineation drilling programme.
The new hole, DD1571, intersected the Bonanza Zone up dip and approximately 18 m north of the discovery drill hole DD1450 (13,05 % copper over 22,3 m (true thickness)), also at a 2 % copper cut-off grade, that was drilled earlier this year.
The Kamoa North Bonanza Zone represents a new style of copper mineralisation at the Kamoa-Kakula project, where massive to semi-massive chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite have locally replaced pyrite in the Kamoa Pyritic Siltstone (KPS) – a pyritic siltstone that lies immediately above the basal diamictite unit that typically hosts the copper mineralisation at Kamoa-Kakula.
Drilling has extended the strike length of the Kamoa North Bonanza Zone to at least 550 m, with a width of up to 60 m across strike. Six drill rigs are defining or extending the limits of the Kamoa North Bonanza Zone, which has an implied strike length of 2,72 km.
“While we continue to work toward an initial resource estimate for the Kamoa North Bonanza Zone, we look forward to leveraging our team’s proprietary exploration knowledge to search for the next bonanza-grade copper discovery on the Kamoa-Kakula mining licence and on the adjoining Western Foreland exploration licences, which are 100 %-owned by Ivanhoe Mines,” said David Edwards, Geology Manager, Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project.
The project is approximately 25 km west of the mining centre of Kolwezi in the DRC. It is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39,6 %), Zijin Mining Group (39,6 %), Crystal River Global Limited (0,8 %) and the DRC government (20 %). Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining are co-funding development of the project.
Photo courtesy of Ivanhoe Mines