Aim- and AltX-listed Shuka Minerals has successfully completed the sixth and seventh drill holes, KBDD06 and KBDD07, in the previously unmined Speaks and Mine Club zones at its Kabwe zinc mine, in Zambia.

The company and consultants, GeoQuest, planned these exploration holes to intersect a different, previously unexploited orebody in the Speaks and Mine Club areas.

Shuka says the anticipated depths of these drill holes will be at 150 m to 275 m.

KBDD06 was drilled to a depth of 269 m and represents the first exploratory drill hole into the northern part of the Speaks/Mine Club area, which represents the northern extension of the old and previously unexploited section of the Kabwe deposit.

It intersected a sequence of massive to banded dolomites, the Kabwe mineralisation host rock, with mineralised veins from 55 m to 91 m downhole and 160 m to 193 m downhole.

KBDD07 was drilled to a depth of 173.1 m and represents further exploratory drilling into the northern part of the Speaks/Mine Club area.

Three mineralised zones were intersected at 20 m to 25 m, 83 m to 88 m and 140 m to 142 m downhole.

A 2023 Behre Dolbear National Instrument (NI) 43-101 report indicates that the Speaks orebody contains 1.94-million tonnes of indicated and inferred resource at grades of 12% zinc and 2% lead.

The Mine Club orebody contains 666 000 t of indicated and inferred resource at grades of 11.7% zinc and 0.8% lead plus silver and vanadium oxide. Copper mineralisation has also been reported in the northerly areas.

Results include KBDD06 at 8.33 m at 1.69% zinc from 55.66 m to 63.99 m. A peak zinc reading of 11.24% was recorded.

KBDD06 at 6 m at 4.57% zinc from 84.66 m to 90.66 m. Peak zinc readings of 21.05%, 20.84% & 22.8% occurred across 1 m of core.

KBDD06 at 4.33 m at 1.65% zinc from 160.33 m to 164.66 m. Pinpoint readings ranged from less than 1% to 4.96% zinc.

KBDD06 at 5.33 m at 1.34% zinc from 187.33 m to 192.66 m. Pinpoint readings over the interval ranged from less than 1% to 3.02% zinc.

KBDD07 at 3.66 m at 1.08% zinc from 21.33 m to 24.99 m. Pinpoint readings ranged from less than 1% to 1.7% zinc.

KBDD07 at 4.33 m at 1.12% zinc from 83.33 m to 87.66 m. Pinpoint readings ranged from less than 1% to 4.15% zinc.

KBDD07 at 1.33 m at 1.6% zinc from 140.33 m to 141.66 m. Pinpoint readings ranged from 1.22% to 2.53% zinc.

Shuka explains that these assays were taken with a calibrated X-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine and will be verified in due course with Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) and NI 43 101 laboratory analysis and testing.

Encouragingly, Shuka says it can clearly see the mineralisation in the northerly area, some 1 km from the main Pit 2 area, occurs in numerous veins.

While the average grade was lower in KBDD06 and KBDD07 than the exceptional grades encountered thus far in the current drilling campaign, the company says the presence of high-grade sections and mineralisation in general in these holes is highly encouraging.

The purpose of these holes was to target the northern extremities of the underexplored Mine Speaks and Club orebodies. Hole KBDD08 is already under way and will focus more centrally in these orebodies.

Shuka says the GeoQuest geological team is on site with Shuka CEO Richard Lloyd who is overseeing the initial phase of drilling which has now been extended to 2 500 m owing to the excellent results received to date.

Drilling is being undertaken by Ox Drilling, a contractor with 21 years of established operating experience in Zambia.

The company will update on further progress as drilling advances.

"The northern areas of the Kabwe project are less defined, so the programme here is much more of a true exploration drilling programme, we again hit mineralisation in our first holes and demonstrated the northerly reaches of the orebodies.

“These exploration holes give us so much more information about the orebody and its behaviour along strike. We now return to drilling more centrally in this northern orebody and will have further drilling updates in the near term,” says Lloyd.