Aim-listed mineral exploration and development company Tertiary Minerals’ local partner and licence holder Mwashia Resources has received environmental project brief (EPB) approval from the Zambian Environmental Management Agency (Zema) for its Mushima North copper project, where Tertiary is earning up to a 90% interest.
The Mushima North project, together with the Mukai project, in Zambia, benefits from a data sharing and technical agreement with global copper producer First Quantum Minerals (FQM).
“We are currently working through the shared FQM data in preparation for the coming field exploration season,” Tertiary executive chairperson Patrick Cheetham said on January 16.
Zema has now approved the EPB for the Mushima North project. This follows approval of EPBs for the Konkola West and Lubuila projects, as announced on November 24 last year.
The approval process for the EPB for the Mukai copper project, Tertiary’s final outstanding EPB, is at an advanced stage, the company said. EPB approval is key before field exploration programmes can proceed.
“On a recent visit to Zambia in December, our exploration manager recovered sulphide mineralised drill core from a drill hole completed in the 1960s at Mushima North, which reportedly tested an extensive copper-in-soil anomaly and intersected wide zones of low-grade copper mineralisation. We will be assaying this core shortly to validate this early target,” Cheetham said.