Silverking Copper Project
Central Zambia
On 3 April 2024, the company announced that it had entered a joint venture agreement with Oval Mining Limited, which is acting in cooperation with Cooperlemon Consultancy Limited, to earn up to a 70% interest in the Silverking copper mine and accompanying exploration licence 26673-HQ-LEL.
The project covers an area of approximately 81.7km2 and is situated west of Lusaka, in the Karenda region of the prospective Mumbwa district of Zambia.
The licence hosts the historic Silverking copper mine and is considered prospective for high-grade, breccia-controlled deposits of copper and gold, associated with Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) mineralisation.
The project sits adjacent to the Kitumba copper deposit, which in March 2024, received an investment of USD 58.5 million from Chinese investors Sinomine Resource Group, giving them a majority 65% shareholding in the operation.
Mineralisation at Silverking is broadly associated with a breccia pipe, and characterised by deep levels of intense oxidation, breccia, vein and stockwork-hosted copper, further distinguished by high-grade supergene enrichment, characteristic of mineralization styles at the nearby Kitumba deposit.
The former Silverking open pit and underground mine extends to a mining depth of just 70m, with historic drilling suggesting the deposit remains open both down-dip, and along strike. Historical drilling was exceptionally high-grade, including a best intercept of 50m @ 5.47% Cu in drillhole SVKRC002 from 55m to 105m depth, with mineralised intercepts peaking at 52.2% Cu from a 1m interval. This hole ended in mineralisation.
Historical work completed on the licence by Glencore was focused on a Tier 1 discovery and included ground magnetic and induced polarisation (IP) surveys, and a wide-spaced surface geochemical survey. Several targets were identified and these received very limited follow-up drilling.
A second breccia pipe was discovered 800m from the main Silverking mineralised body, which has not been further explored. Surface evidence suggests potential stockwork and disseminated copper mineralisation between the two breccia pipes, and the IP signature suggests a lower-grade mineralised stockwork may surround the main Silverking breccia pipe.
An in-house, non-JORC (2012) compliant resource estimate, by an external contract geological company was commissioned by Glencore in 2012. This non-compliant resource* showed an estimated 268,971 tonnes at 2.7% Cu at a 0.5% Cu cut-off for the main Silverking breccia pipe only.
Additional prospectivity exists across the greater licence, given that the wide-spaced nature of the geochemistry survey could have easily missed breccia pipe style mineralisation.
*The non-compliant resource was not prepared to any acceptable Aim Standard, no reliance can be placed on the non-compliant resource and it is therefore only illustrative.
