BeMetals Corp. announced the completion of its 2022 aircore campaign, the definition of copper targets and commencement of core drilling at the Pangeni Copper Project (Pangeni" or the "Project" or the "Property"). The Project is located on the western extension of the prolific Central African Copperbelt in Zambia (the "Zambian Copperbelt"). From July to September 2022, 3,619 metres of shallow aircore drilling were completed at the Pangeni Project. The primary objective of the aircore drilling is to generate targets for concealed copper deposits under the thin Kalahari sand over to be subsequently tested by core drilling. The aircore holes were spaced at various distances along the lines from 400-metre to 200-metre and 100-metre infill centres based upon field results and geological observations of the drill cuttings. The exploration program is jointly pro-rata funded by BeMetals and Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security ("JOGMEC"). At the Q-Prospect, drill hole Q3-C1 completed in 2021 intersected 4.14 metres grading 0.62% Cu (from 92.36 metres drilled depth) of copper oxide mineralization hosted within siltstones interpreted to be part of the Katangan Supergroup near interpreted basement units. Many of the world class, sediment-hosted, copper deposits and mines of the Central African Copperbelt occur in this same geological setting when coupled with favourable structural feeders for the copper mineralization.
The copper anomaly in aircore hole Q3-03 of 1,545 parts per million ("ppm") copper, represents a target for core testing some 150 metres stepped back from drill hole Q3-C1. Aircore hole Q3-12 with 502ppm copper, with copper oxide minerals identified in logging chips, also provides another potential follow-up target in this area dependent upon initial core information from the Q3-03 target.
Target E8 is situated to the northwest of the SW-Prospect as depicted. This relates to a 695ppm copper in bedrock anomaly in aircore hole E8-03 which is supported by a 903ppm copper in the Kalahari sand just above the bedrock contact. The D5-06 target represents a potential extension of mineralization first discovered at the D-Prospect near the end of 2019. Based upon this and subsequent core drilling results, this area remains an important target area for further exploration. Thus far, copper mineralization in this area extends for at least 1.2 kilometres along the interpreted strike of the mineralization including holes D7-C1, and D7-C2. These core holes returned meaningful and multiple copper intersections ranging from 6.0 to 2.12 metres in width and 0.58% Cu to 0.32% Cu in grade (0.3% Cu cut-off grade). To date, significant copper mineralization has been intersected in five of the six core drill holes completed at the D-Prospect. The copper grades in many of the previous drill holes are similar to those for operating large-scale copper mines in the Domes Region of the Zambian Copperbelt (Examples: First Quantum Minerals' Sentinel Mine Reserves: 876.8 million tonnes grading 0.46% Cu(1) and Barrick Gold's Lumwana Mine Reserves: 538.8 million tonnes grading 0.56% Cu(2)). (See Figure 4 for other regional project locations). Stand-alone copper targets on the P, G and K aircore lines. These targets for potential core drilling are focused on aircore holes P1-07B, P1-11A, G2-06 and K2-03B with copper anomalies of 699, 473, 1,447 and 495ppm respectively. The targets at the southern end of the P line specifically are currently interpreted as being potentially hosted Katangan units. Decisions on which of these targets to be tested, and their priority for the 2022 core drilling program will be made as the program advances based upon the geological information.
The Pangeni Project is located on the western extension of the Zambian Copperbelt, within the Lufilian Arc, underlain by Katangan Supergroup metasediments situated unconformably on basement schists and gneisses, which are covered by a thin veneer of Kalahari sands. The open pit Sentinel Copper Mine is operated by First Quantum Minerals Ltd. some 130 kilometres to the northeast of the Pangeni Project. A number of major international mining companies have identified this region of the Zambian Copperbelt to be prospective for the discovery of tier one copper mines and are also conducting extensive exploration work in this area. The Pangeni Project property is geologically prospective for the following deposit types; Basement-hosted Cu (analogues: the Lumwana Deposit, Nyungu Prospect), Sediment-hosted stratiform Cu-Co (analogues: Nchanga, Konkola, Nkana, and Mufulira Deposits), other Domes Region Deposits e.g. Sentinel, and Kansanshi and DRC Copperbelt Deposits e.g. Lonshi, Frontier, Kamoa-Kakula).