Si6 Metals’ latest batch of drill assays from its Dibete project in Botswana show a hole with a bumper copper grade of 13 per cent, paired with 168 grams per tonne silver in a 1m section from 29m.
The eye-catching, high-grade chunk was within a 6.15m-thick section grading 7.2 per cent copper and 182g/t silver from 24.85m, which also included a 0.5m lens at 10.8 per cent copper and 281g/t silver.
The high-grade diamond-core hole was designed to ground-truth an intersection released to the market earlier this month that read 2m at 4.2 per cent copper and 269g/t silver from 52m, including 0.5m at 10.8 per cent copper and 281g/t silver within the same section. Management says the high-grade copper mineralisation occurs as the copper-rich mineral chalcocite within weathered biotite schists.
The company also says trench assays at Dibete show potentially economic oxide grades at surface, with an 8m-thick section going 0.62 per cent copper and 28.3g/t silver.
Si6 Metals managing director Jim Malone said: “These results further demonstrate the high grade and shallow nature of the Dibete Cu-Ag deposit. It is very encouraging that these latest results exceed the very high grades recently reported from the current drill campaign. Si6 looks forward to reporting the next round of results from additional drilling at Airstrip and Maibele North later this quarter.”
The drill results form part of a 10,000m staged campaign covering the company’s three flagship Botswana projects – Dibete, Airstrip and Maibele North – which are all located in Botswana’s east, near the border with Zimbabwe.
Previous reverse-circulation (RC) drill assays from Dibete released to the market back in April 2012 include 38m at 1.72 per cent copper and 119.5g/t silver from 16m, 17m at 2.7 per cent copper and 40.5g/t silver from 16m, 11m at 4.5 per cent copper and 229.9g/t silver from 33m and 10m at 3.9 per cent copper with 110g/t silver from 43m.
In 2017, the company announced more RC drill hits from Dibete, with 25m at 2.17 per cent copper and 77g/t silver from 27m, 13m at 2.11 per cent copper and 37.8g/t silver from 37m, 13m at 1.9 per cent copper and 61.9g/t silver from 41m, 6m at 4.46 per cent copper and 16 g/t silver from 38m and 10m at 2.04 per cent copper and 15.6g/t silver from 7m.
Si6’s land-holding in Botswana sits in the highly-prospective Limpopo Belt, about 20km from Premium Nickel Resources’ Selebi-Phikwe mine, which has produced 26.6 million tonnes grading 1.03 per cent copper and 0.58 per cent nickel from one shaft and 13.9 million tonnes grading 0.66 per cent copper and 0.74 per cent nickel from the other.
The company owns 61 per cent of an earn-in joint venture (JV) it shares with Botswanian company BCL Investments. It covers a north-east-trending, 4.5km-by-1km area to a depth of about 500m within a massive 185-square-kilometre tenement package.
Management says sub-surface, pipe-like copper sulphide bodies are well defined by steeply-dipping audio-frequency magnetotelluric (AMT) and induced-polarisation (IP) conductive geophysical anomalies at the deposit as it prepares for more drilling.
At Maibele North, Si6 will conduct an open-pit mining review for the deposit, which has an inferred mineral resource of 2.38 million tonnes grading 0.21 per cent copper, 0.72 per cent nickel, 0.36g/t palladium and 0.1g/t gold.
Infill drilling and depth testing may allow Maibele North’s resource to be upgraded, with the company stating that $7.55 million has been spent on historical drilling, but results have not yet been incorporated into the estimate.
Global copper and silver prices are modelled to increase in response to demand for the metals in electric vehicles and other electronic applications. Mordor Intelligence modelled a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for copper of greater than 6 per cent during the next five years, while silver is modelled with a CAGR of 5 per cent in the same period.
Si6 is gearing up for a busy period, with drilling continuing at Maibele North and Airstrip to test geophysical targets beneath and along strike of known mineralisation. Results are due later this quarter and could make Si6 one to watch before Christmas … especially with the bumper grades from sister prospect, Dibete.
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By Andrew Duffy
