Aim-listed African Battery Metals (ABM) has started exploration activities at its cobalt/nickel project in Cameroon and will initially be targeting cobalt and nickel mineralisation at prioritised targets within the company’s licence areas.
The work programme will start immediately, with a view to complete the programme before the onset of the heavy rains.
Samples will be tested in South Africa following the completion of field work.
Additionally, ABM will now undertake a pit excavation programme to a maximum depth of 15 m per individual pit.
The pitting programme will include mapping and sampling of each excavated pit to produce a database of prospect information to complement historical work completed on site.
The primary objective of the programme is to test the theory that ABM’s licence interests may demonstrate geological similarity to the nearby significant Nkamouna deposit, which has a total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resource of 323-million tonnes of 0.21% cobalt, 0.61% nickel and 1.26% manganese.
The field work in Cameroon follows the restart of exploration at the Kisinka project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where ABM has opted to focus its initial exploration spend in a highly targeted manner to see whether the identified target areas have geological similarity to the nearby Nkamouna deposit.
“If the answer is positive, the impact on the value of the project to the company could be dramatic and certainly disproportionately beneficial against the underlying modest cost of conducting the planned pitting and sampling programme,” ABM executive director Paul Johnson says.