Orion identifies four drill targets that may expand Okiep Flat Mines resources

The targets have the potential to substantially expand the mineral resource at the Flat Mines complex, the company reports.

An exploration programme is being designed and budgeted to start as soon as permitting is granted on the Prospecting and Mining Right Applications. Drilling will be designed to upgrade potential targets to mineral resource status, as well as to drill test potential near-mine extensions and satellite mineralisation.

Four of the six high-priority drill targets have been extensively drilled but remain open, with potential for strike and dip extensions. The four targets – Flat Mine (Nababeep), Jan Coetzee Mine, Nababeep Kloof Mine and Franco’s Prospect – are located in close proximity to current reported mineral resources and have been prioritised for drill testing and evaluation for their potential to contribute to early production.

The modelled mineralisation at Flat Mine (Nababeep), Franco’s Prospect and Jan Coetzee Mine is steeply dipping, while the mineralisation at Nababeep Kloof Mine has a generally broad, flat-dipping lens geometry.

The mineralised orebodies generally strike east-west, as is typical for copper mineralisation in the Okiep Copper District.

“We are currently planning and budgeting our maiden exploration programmes for the Okiep project. We cannot wait to get drill rigs on the ground to test some of these outstanding targets, many of which feature broad zones of strong copper mineralisation in historical drilling,” says Orion MD and CEO Errol Smart.

“Our new drill programmes will be designed to grow our mineral resources and to test strike and dip extensions of the known mineralisation.”

“The Okiep project continues to deliver pleasant surprises. As we delve into the historical drilling and mining data, we are finding numerous targets with good quality drilling information and outstanding potential to delineate shallow, high-grade mineralisation,” says Smart.

From ongoing due diligence, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a clear opportunity to establish early production and ramp-up quickly to achieve significant scale across the district.

“We always expected to find some jewels in the data, but our best expectations for identifying low-hanging fruit are being exceeded,” he notes.

The additional targets are clustered around the site of the proposed plant site, as applied for by the project vendor, Southern African Tantalum Mining.

The targets were identified during ongoing due diligence investigations being undertaken by Orion on the extensive database recently accessed. Orion has an option to buy the extensive database owned by O’Okiep Copper Company. The quality of the targets already identified from the historical data underscores the highly prospective nature of the Okiep Copper District.

Numerous historical surface drill holes with high-grade intersections are available in the O’Okiep Copper Company database recently accessed by Orion and are now being digitally captured and used to identify priority drill targets for further follow-up. These holes form part of the archive of more than 26 000 drill holes.