JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – High-grade silver, zinc and copper drill intercepts have been reported in the third batch of assay results from Africa-focused project developer Ivanhoe Mines’ underground diamond-drilling programme at its Kipushi copper/zinc/germanium/lead/precious metals mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The results included those from the first hole, KPU040, drilled through the historical Big Zinc zone from the hanging-wall drill drift on the 1 272 m level, which provided the geometry for near-true-width intercepts.
“Our discovery of high-grade copper/zinc/silver mineralisation with significant gold and germanium values within the Big Zinc zone confirms our hypothesis that copper zones, which also are rich in precious metals, exist within the deep, unmined portions of the Kipushi mine,” Ivanhoe executive chairperson Robert Friedland said.
He added that these zones now presented new and compelling targets for the company’s ongoing exploration, which would continue to test for extensions to the Big Zinc zone and the newly discovered high-grade precious metals mineralisation.
Currently, two diamond drill rigs continued on confirmatory drilling of the Big Zinc zone from the hanging-wall drill drift on the 1 272 m level, with deep drilling planned to test for depth extensions.
Meanwhile, Ivanhoe CEO Lars-Eric Johansson noted that the Big Zinc zone was also sulphur rich.
“[This] also represents a potentially significant value addition, given the scarcity of primary sulphur supply in the Copperbelt region and the demand for acid in conventional in-country oxide recovery circuits,” he stated.