Arc Minerals reveals further drilling progress at Cheyeza East (ARCM)

By Patricia Miller

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Shares in Arc Minerals (LSE:ARCM) dipped 2pc to 4.8p on Wednesday morning despite the business revealing another strong drill result at its latest target in Zambia.

The £33.9m resources player said a hole called CHDDE004 drilled at its Cheyeza East target intersected 18m at 2.35pc copper from 30.6m, including 7.6m at 4.15pc copper from 39m. The hole was drilled around 300m south along strike from a hole that intersected 1.05pc copper over 25m from 2m depth and another that encountered 1.32pc copper over 28.5m from 18.6m depth.

According to Arc, its latest result supports the continuity of mineralisation along strike but also indicates that the width of the mineralisation is going to be ‘well over’ 100m wide. ‘[It] could be wider if the other holes drilled on this profile assay economic grades of copper,’ the firm added.

Cheyeza was one of several areas identified by geophysics and geochemistry work completed by Arc at its 66pc-owned Zamsort asset last year. Arc is particularly interested in a 3km by 0.8km area at Cheyeza East where up to 2,792 ppm copper has been identified in soil This is where the business has drilled all of its holes to date.

Arc’s executive chairman Nick von Schirnding called Wednesday’s result ‘fantastic’, adding that it ‘underscores what an exciting asset Cheyeza East is turning into’.

‘We believe that the upside potential is significant, and the shallow nature of these high-grade results is supportive of the economics going forward. I look forward to reporting on future drilling results over the next few months,’ he said.

Drilling will now continue at the anomaly to test its full extent, both along strike and down dip.

Another target identified by Arc at Zamsort last year was Lumbeta, which stretches for 11km and is associated with the crest of a fold. According to Arc, these formations can act as mineralisation traps and form high-grade deposits. Upon announcing the discoveries in February, Arc’s executive chairman von Schirnding said they could represent a ‘potential game-changer’ for the firm.

Earlier this month, Arc announced that it had identified another large target at Zamsort called West Lunga, which has demonstrated anomalous copper over a 6km strike, with peak values of 463ppm. The West Lunga target is located in the western part of the Zamsort & Zaco licences and targets the same horizon that hosts the world-class Kamoa deposit.

Elsewhere, Arc is continuing to develop its more advanced Kalaba prospect at Zamsort. Kalaba is a copper-cobalt licence covering nine of 30 high priority targets ranked by a previous JV operated by Anglo American. It is found near First Quantum’s Sentinel and Kansanshi and Barrick’s Lumwana mines.  The project has an existing near-surface estimated copper-cobalt oxide resource of 16.59Mt at 0.94pc copper and a historical exploration target of 150Mt. This makes it one of the most significant projects of its type in Zambia.

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Author: Patricia Miller

This article does not provide any financial advice and is not a recommendation to deal in any securities or product. Investments may fall in value and an investor may lose some or all of their investment. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance.

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