Aim- and JSE-listed Shuka Minerals has appointed Ox Drilling as the drilling contractor for the Phase 1 drilling programme at the Kabwe zinc mine, which is managed by Shuka’s Zambian operating subsidiary Leopard Exploration and Mining.

The drilling campaign is scheduled to start in mid-May and will be supported by Shuka’s geological consultants GeoQuest.

The 2 000 m Phase 1 diamond drilling programme will consist of PQ- and HQ-sized core targeting known mineralised zones around and beneath the previous workings at vertical depths ranging from 100 m to 500 m.

The results from this first phase of drilling, coupled with ongoing exploration, which includes airborne and ground magnetics, as well as surface sampling and mapping, are expected to enable the company to finalise the locations for the balance of the broader 10 000 m Phase 2 programme and subsequent Joint Ore Reserves Committee resource and reserves upgrade later in the year.

This is the first resource drilling being undertaken at Kabwe since the 1970s, Shuka points out.

As previously reported, the company’s objective for this year’s exploration programme is to achieve a 50% increase to the existing resource of 6.8-million tonnes at 13.3% zinc and 3.3% lead with an estimated in-situ value of $4-billion.

The current programme is also designed to better understand the silver, vanadium, germanium and gallium concentrations and metallurgy as a by-product of the zinc and lead production.

Ox has been operating in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other Southern African countries for over 20 years.

The company is equipped with a modern fleet of drilling rigs and machinery and has undertaken drilling for numerous mining operators in Zambia, including, BHP Billiton, Barrick Mining and First Quantum Minerals.

Based in Ndola, 180 km north of the Kabwe project, Ox’s appointment streamlines logistics and mobilisation and makes the contract cost effective, Shuka avers.

It adds that Ox meets the highest health and safety standards and will work with Shuka and GeoQuest to ensure a safe and efficient drilling programme is conducted.

“It is really exciting to now embark on the fully-funded drilling campaign at Kabwe. The Ox and GeoQuest teams have worked together previously, and I have been extremely impressed with how diligently they have planned this initial campaign,” Shuka CEO Richard Lloyd says.

“We have carefully selected known mineralised zones from historic ZCCM and Anglo American drilling and operations.

“The programme is designed to consolidate and upgrade the geological models and reserves/resource, as well as test some less-defined areas and also generate a better understanding of the by-products found at Kabwe, some of which could prove to be a mine in their own right based on historic production data,” he adds.