Mumbwa
Overview
The Mumbwa Project is located in west central Zambia, approximately 200 km west of the Country’s capital, Lusaka. The Mumbwa tenement (8589-HQ-LPL) area covers an area of approximately 500 km2, and is being explored for iron oxide copper-gold (“IOCG”) style mineralisation, similar to Prominant Hill and Olympic Dam in South Australia, and Ernest Henry in Queensland.
Within the Mumbwa tenement there are 3 large, regional scale anomalies, the Kitumba, Mushingashi and Mutoya anomalies, that are being targeted for further exploration. These anomalies were identified in through the initial Phase 1 FALCON™ survey commissioned by Blackthorn Resources in 2004. The high-resolution gravity, magnetic and radiometric data provided by the FALCON™ survey was interpreted using BHPB's propriety SolidEarth™ software.
At Kitumba, the Phase 2 drilling program completed 8 holes for a total 4,105.17 m of core which included a single discovery hole, S36-001. This drill hole intersected significant copper and gold mineralisation over a 655 m interval grading 0.46% Cu including:
• 317m @ 0.79% Cu,
• 18m @ 0.20g/t Au,
• 42m @ 2.01% Cu, including
• 4m @ 5.56% Cu.
As follow up to this significant mineralised drill intersection at Kitumba, Blackthorn Resources commenced the Phase 3 drilling program in 2008 which completed 8,000m of cored drilling from 18 holes. A total of 16 holes returned copper and/or gold mineralisation above the nominated 0.25 % Cu and 0.25 g/t Au cut-off grades.
In mid-2009, Blackthorn Resources commissioned consultants from the MSA Group to conduct a Mineral Resource Estimate for the Kitumba area based on results from previous drilling campaigns. An Inferred Mineral Resource was estimated and reported in accordance with guidelines of the 2004 JORC code.
|
Copper
cut-off
(%)
|
Resource
Tonnes
(Mt)
|
Average
Grade Cu
(%)
|
Average
Grade Au
(g/t)
|
Average
Grade Ag
(g/t)
|
Average
Grade U
(ppm)
|
|
0.0
|
571
|
0.34
|
0.06
|
1.45
|
44
|
|
0.2
|
345
|
0.47
|
0.06
|
1.38
|
45
|
|
0.5
|
87
|
0.94
|
0.05
|
1.27
|
37
|
|
1.0
|
22
|
1.73
|
0.05
|
1.20
|
36
|
The Mumbwa Project, previously held in joint venture with BHP Billiton, is now owned 100% by Blackthorn Resources with BHP Billiton retaining a 2% production royalty following its decision to exit from direct involvement in the Project in 2011.