London-listed exploration company Aterian has discovered strong sediment-hosted copper mineralisation at its recently acquired Tata project, in Morocco.
The company’s acquisition of Aterian Resources included a portfolio of 15 copper, silver and base metal projects in Morocco.
The Tata project covers an area of 143 km2 and lies within the western Anti-Atlas Mountains of the country, and 30 km south of Aterian’s Azrar copper/silver project.
Aterian chairperson Charles Bray says the company has seen highly encouraging results and geological data from the Tata project and considers it to be one of its higher-priority projects.
Some of the initial results include copper grading 0.95% from a 4-m-thick dolomitic sequence and copper grading 0.87% from an 8-cm-thick sequence of dolomite and marl.
Aterian CEO Simon Rollason points out that the initial results have indicated the presence of sediment-hosted copper mineralisation, which is exciting given that there is still a significant strike length of more than 25 km to explore and sample.
“Our internal review of the sedimentary copper found in the western Anti-Atlas indicates that it typically occurs within the Basal Series and Lower Limestone units of the Adoudou Formation.
“These initial results correlate stratigraphically with this observation made on other nearby copper occurrences; however, copper mineralisation has also been reported from the younger, overlying sediments of the Cambrian-aged Tata group.
“We will continue to evaluate the unexplored areas of this project, working towards establishing a drill programme,” Rollason explains.