VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 29, 2022 / BeMetals Corp. (TSXV:BMET, OTCQB:BMTLF, Frankfurt:1OI.F) (the "Company" or "BeMetals") is pleased to announce commencement of the 2022 exploration campaign at the Pangeni Copper Project (Pangeni" or the "Project" or the "Property") located on the western extension of the Central African Copperbelt in Zambia (the "Zambian Copperbelt"). The primary objective for this year's exploration program is to follow-up with testing and extending the Q-Prospect area where last year's diamond drilling program intersected 4.14 metres grading 0.62% copper in hole Q3-C1 importantly hosted in interpreted Katangan Supergroup sediments.
Highlights of the Planned 2022 Pangeni Aircore and core Drilling Campaign:
- Field crews have been mobilized to the Pangeni Property and this year's exploration campaign has
commenced with a planned program of 4,000 metres of shallow aircore drilling and 1,400
metres of diamond drilling to scope the scale potential of the Q and D prospects and test other targets with a similar setting to the Q-Prospect (P & G Targets) - Drilling is to follow-up on encouraging copper intersections made in 2021 at the Q and D prospects
which included:- Q-Target: Drill Hole Q3-C1 intersected 4.14 metres grading 0.62% copper ("Cu")
- Including: 1.30 metres grading 1.10% Cu
- D-Prospect: Drill Hole D7-C1 intersected 5.00 metres grading 0.58% Cu
- D-Prospect: Drill Hole D7-C2 intersected 3.37 metres grading 0.51% Cu
- And also: intersected 6.00 metres grading 0.39% Cu
- Q-Target: Drill Hole Q3-C1 intersected 4.14 metres grading 0.62% copper ("Cu")
Note: Intertek Genalysis completed the analytical work with the core samples processed at their preparation facility in Kitwe, Zambia. All analytical procedures were conducted in an Intertek Genalysis laboratory in Australia. Reported widths are drilled core lengths as true widths are unknown at this time. Based upon current data it is estimated true widths range between 80 to 90% of the drilled intersections.
John Wilton, President and CEO of BeMetals stated, "We are very excited to be following-up on last year's encouraging results with a new US$1.5 million exploration program, funded pro rata by both BeMetals and JOGMEC, to test the extent of copper mineralization discovered at the Q and D prospects last year. The Q-Prospect is of particular interest as last year's drilling revealed significant copper mineralization hosted in siltstones which are interpreted to be Katangan rocks in hole Q3-C1. Such Katangan units are well known to host some of the largest sediment-hosted copper deposits along the Zambian Copperbelt."
Tom Garagan, Director at BeMetals commented, "To date, BeMetals' drilling campaigns have returned a number of intersections beneath the shallow sand cover with copper grades similar to that of First Quantum Minerals' Sentinel and Barrick Gold's Lumwana copper mines in the Zambian Copperbelt. We are finding many of the mineralization and geological relationships important for sediment-hosted deposits in this region and now we are targeting structures to find the feeder zones for the copper mineralization discovered on the Pangeni Property."
PANGENI PROJECT 2022 EXPLORATION PROGRAM
Field crews have been mobilized to the Pangeni Property and the 2022 exploration program will comprise of approximately 4,000 metres of aircore drilling and approximately 1,400 metres of diamond drilling in some six core holes (See Figure 1 for planned aircore line drilling locations). The aircore holes will be 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. This exploration program is to be jointly funded by BeMetals and Japan, Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC"). Initial aircore results will be used to help determine targets for core drill testing to be completed before yearend.
Q-TARGET
Last year's intersection of 4.14 metres grading 0.62% Cu (from 92.36 metres drilled depth) is of specific interest as this zone of copper oxide mineralization in drill hole Q3-C1 was hosted within siltstones interpreted to be part of the Katangan Supergroup. These siltstones have been intersected in relatively close proximity to what is currently interpreted to be basement hosted copper mineralization at the SW-Prospect (See Figure 1). 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.
Figure 2 also illustrates the location of the Q3-C1 drill hole in relation to previous shallow aircore drilling anomalies and the aircore lines planned for 2022. Based upon last year's geological results, complemented with interpretation of the geophysics for the Project, we expect the prospective target area of the structural and/or stratigraphic contact zone between the basement and the Katangan Supergroup units to be located between the Q3-Target and SW-Prospect. Figure 2 indicates where a number of untested shallow aircore targets to the north and west of hole Q3-C1 which is currently the highest follow-up priority target for 2022. In addition, targets along strike from the Q-Prospect will be tested that appear to have similar prospective geological settings (P & G Targets, See Figure 1).
D-PROSPECT
The Company first discovered copper mineralization at the D-Prospect near the end of 2019 and based on last year's drilling results, this area remains an important target area for further exploration. During the past drilling campaigns, the Company has now intersected copper mineralization in several drill holes at the D Prospect, including holes D7-C1, D7-C2 and D3-C2. These drill holes returned meaningful and multiple copper intersections ranging from 6.0 to 0.5 metres in width and 0.58% Cu to 0.32% Cu in grade (0.3% Cu cut-off grade) and require further follow-up testing in 2022.
Figure 3 shows the planned aircore lines in context of results from previous core and shallow aircore data. Thus far, copper mineralization in this area extends for at least 1.2 kilometres along the interpreted strike of the host rocks and remains completely open to extension in the southwest direction and down-dip. The aircore drilling to date to the northeast of the prospect has not identified drill targets in that direction but the relatively wide spaced drill centres at 400 metres does not rule out potential extensions in that area. Also, there is an untested aircore anomaly towards the northwestern end of the D2 line (See Figure 3).
Significant copper mineralization has now been intersected in five of the six core drill holes completed at the D-Prospect. The copper grades in many of the 2021 (D7-C1 & D7-C2) and 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)).
(1) First Quantum Minerals Ltd. website, Mineral Reserves ‐ depleted for mining as at 31st December 2019, and based on a $3.00/lb Cu price. Sentinel Mine, Trident Project, North West Province, Zambia, NI 43-101 Technical Report, March 2020.
(2) Barrick Gold Corporation website, Mineral Reserves - December 31, 2013, Technical Report on the Lumwana Mine, North‐Western, Province, Republic of Zambia, Barrick Gold Corporation, Report for NI 43‐101, March 27, 2014.
Figure 1: Location Map for Planned 2022 Aircore Drilling Lines at Priority Prospects and Targets
Figure 2: Location Map for Planned 2022 Aircore Drilling Lines at Q-Prospect
Figure 3: Location Map for Planned 2022 Aircore Drilling Lines at D-Prospect
THE PANGENI COPPER PROJECT
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).
Figure 4. Pangeni Copper Project Location Map in Zambia
QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL
The results reported here for this core drilling program were analyzed by Intertek Genalysis, an independent and accredited laboratory. Samples were prepared at their facility in Kitwe, Zambia and analytical work conducted in Australia. The results were determined using multi-acid, near total digest, and analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma ("ICP") Optical (Atomic) Emission Spectrometry ("OES"). The core sampling was conducted with a robust sampling protocol that included the appropriate insertion of standard reference material, duplicates, and blanks into the sample stream.
Field operations and management have been provided by Remote Exploration Services ("RES") an independent geological consulting and contracting company. The core drilling was conducted by Blurock Mining Services, of Kitwe, Zambia.
ABOUT BEMETALS CORP.
BeMetals is a precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on becoming a leading metal producer through the acquisition of quality exploration, development and potentially production stage projects. The Company has recently established itself in the gold sector with the acquisition of certain wholly owned exploration projects in Japan. BeMetals is also progressing both its advanced high-grade, zinc-silver-gold-copper polymetallic underground exploration at the South Mountain Project in Idaho through a preliminary economic assessment, and its tier-one targeted, Pangeni Copper Exploration Project in Zambia. Guiding and leading BeMetals' growth strategy is a strong board and management team, founders and significant shareholders of the Company, who have an extensive proven record of delivering considerable value in the mining sector through the discovery, construction and operation of mines around the world.
The technical information in this news release for BeMetals has been reviewed and approved by John Wilton, CGeol FGS, CEO and President of BeMetals, and a "Qualified Person" as defined under National Instrument 43-101.1
ON BEHALF OF BEMETALS CORP.
"John Wilton"
John Wilton
President, CEO and Director
For further information about BeMetals please visit our website at bemetalscorp.com and sign-up to our email list to receive timely updates, or contact:
Derek Iwanaka
Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Development
Telephone: 604-928-2797
Email: [email protected]
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (as defined under applicable securities laws), based on management's best estimates, assumptions and current expectations. Such statements include but are not limited to, statements with respect to future exploration, development and advancement of the South Mountain Project, the Pangeni project and the Japan properties, and the acquisition of additional base and/or precious metal projects. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", "expected", "budgeted", "forecasts", "anticipates", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "could" or "should" occur. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: the actual results of exploration activities, the availability of financing and/or cash flow to fund the current and future plans and expenditures, the ability of the Company to satisfy the conditions of the option agreements for the South Mountain Project and/or the Pangeni Project, and changes in the world commodity markets or equity markets. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The forward-looking statements and forward looking information are made as of the date hereof and are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such factors or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any forward-looking statements or forward looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as require by law. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. Please refer to the Company's most recent filings under its profile at www.sedar.com for further information respecting the risks affecting the Company and its business.
SOURCE: BeMetals Corp.