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(Sharecast News) - Tertiary Minerals reported encouraging outcomes from its investigative soil analysis at the Mushima North Copper Project in Zambia on Thursday, shedding light on the potential viability of the site for future excavation.
The AIM-traded company said the data emanated from the C1 target area, one of several locations under scrutiny during a comprehensive soil sampling campaign.
Tertiary used portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis to examine 572 soil samples from the C1 target area, distributed across a 200 by 200-metre grid.
The resulting data revealed a substantial, open-ended copper anomaly, with readings above 60 parts per million, stretching over four by 1.25 kilometres.
Significantly, the peak value registered was 211 parts of copper per million, detected close to the RKN800 drill hole, subject to past exploration in the 1970s.
RKN800, even with its historical backdrop, demonstrated 33 metres grading 0.24% copper from a depth of 122 metres to its termination, coupled with a conspicuously anomalous presence of arsenic.
Furthermore, a strong correlation between the highest copper-in-soil values and the most significant arsenic values was recorded in pXRF soil results, mirroring the pronounced arsenic anomaly found in hole RKN800.
The C1 target area was particularly significant as it was permissive for both iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) style and traditional Copperbelt sediment-hosted mineralisation, opening up varied avenues for resource extraction.
"I am very pleased to announce further positive results from our summer exploration programmes in Zambia," said executive chairman Patrick Cheetham.
"This follows the recently announced exciting results from the Mukai Copper Project in Zambia and the signing of a term sheet regarding an earn-in and joint venture for Konkola West.
"Target C1 contains intriguing gravity and magnetic anomalies, key geophysical targets for buried IOCG mineralisation, as well as known mineralisation of traditional copperbelt style in hole RKN800."
Cheetham said it was encouraging to see the geochemical signature of the mineralisation in RKN800 replicated in the soil pXRF results, further enhancing the possibility that mineralisation of that style was present over a wider area.
"These new soil results confirm and highlight the prospectivity of target C1, and drill optimisation planning will now take place.
"We are eagerly awaiting the results from soil sampling on priority target A1 and nearby target A2."
At 1314 BST, shares in Tertiary Minerals were up 5.54% at 0.14p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
