ASX-listed explorer Midas Minerals Ltd has announced the expansion of its Spaatz Prospect in Namibia, extending the core copper-silver mineralised zone to a strike length of at least 800 metres.
According to Midas Minerals Managing Director Mark Calderwood, recent reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Otavi Copper Project has returned encouraging wide intersections of copper, silver and lead mineralisation.
Standout results include hole SPRC062, which intersected 52 metres grading 1.19% copper, 8.7g/t silver and 1.93% lead from 148 metres, including a higher-grade interval of 30 metres at 1.87% copper and 12.7g/t silver. Another significant result came from hole SPRC045, which returned 33 metres grading 0.76% copper, 17.8g/t silver and 1.69% lead from a shallow depth of 18 metres.
In addition to the copper-silver system, re-assayed historical diamond drill core has identified a substantial shallow manganese zone on the margins of the main deposit. The best result returned 97.8 metres grading 17.6% manganese from just 0.2 metres below surface.
To better define the structural controls of the expanding mineralised system, Midas has commenced diamond drilling alongside ongoing shallow RC drilling.
“We’ve identified that the Cu-Ag-Pb-Mo-Mn mineralised corridor at Spaatz now extends for at least 800m of strike. Core drilling has commenced and this should provide an understanding of the structural controls at the local scale. RC drilling is continuing to test shallower IP targets, which have been identified over a 2km strike,” Calderwood said.
He said exploration success at Spaatz is also being replicated across Midas’ broader Namibian portfolio, providing the company with a pipeline of prospective targets.
At the Hartbeespoort Prospect, a 3.6-kilometre grid soil sampling programme is under way to define drill targets ahead of a maiden drilling campaign scheduled for the September quarter.
Meanwhile, Calderwood said follow-up drilling is planned later this year at the South Otavi Project after exploration delineated a 3.9-kilometre bedrock anomaly containing anomalous gold and pathfinder elements.
“Shallow, wide-spaced RC drilling at South Otavi has defined a zone of anomalous gold and pathfinder mineralisation over a strike length of at least 3.9km, with further drilling planned this year,” he said.
Further west, initial rock chip sampling at the Khorixas West Project returned surface grades of up to 30.8% copper and 4.26g/t gold.
Results from a recent 574-sample soil sampling programme at Khorixas West are expected during the September quarter and will be used to finalise future drill targets.
“Early results from the West Khorixas Project are encouraging, with further work planned following receipt of the soil sampling assay results,” Calderwood said.
The latest results come as Midas continues an aggressive regional exploration programme, with six drill rigs currently operating across its 3,260-square-kilometre tenement portfolio in Namibia.
