Western Foreland Copper Project
Northwest Zambia
The Western Foreland Copper Project comprises five exploration licences located in the prospective Western Foreland region of Northwest Zambia, covering a total area of 173,586 hectares.
The project is adjacent to the Central African Copper Belt, where significant potential exists for the discovery of sediment hosted copper deposits. The geology is dominated by the architectural domains known as the Western Foreland succession and the Lufilian Fold & Thrust Belt.
The Western Foreland succession is host to high-grade Kamoa-style mineralisation, while the neighbouring Lufilian Fold & Thrust Belt plays host to lower- grade, bulk tonnage, near-surface mineralisation of the Kolwezi-type.
Licence 29123 – HQ – LEL is located to the west of the perceived boundary between the Western Foreland and the Fold Belt, while the four other licences (30458 – HQ – LEL, 30459-HQ- LEL, 21850-HQ-LEL and 21851-HQ-LEL) are coincident with the boundary and the Fold Belt.
The company believes there is scope for the discovery of both high-grade Kamoa-style mineralisation at depth and lower grade Kolwezi-type mineralisation at or near-surface on all five licences.
On 24 August 2023 Xtract announced that it had entered into a joint venture agreement with Cooperlemon Consultancy. Under the terms of this agreement, Xtract committed to a Phase 1 exploration expenditure of no less than US$2 million within the first two years of the agreement, in respect of exploration licences 29123-HQ-LEL and 30459-HQ-LEL.
If the Phase 1 exploration results are successful, there will be a further two year exploration period requiring a further expenditure commitment of US$3 million.
Success in the first period will be defined by proof of the continuity of mineralisation at grades suggesting the potential for the future development of a mineral resource of not less than 500,000 tonnes of contained copper, consistent with economic recovery an internal rate of return of not less than 25% and a payback period not exceeding 42 months (including the recovery of capital expenditure).
Subsequently, on 30 May 2024, Xtract entered into an amended joint venture agreement with Cooperlemon Consultancy regarding an additional three exploration licences in the Western Foreland (21850-HQ-LEL, 21851-HQ-LEL & 30458-HQ-LEL).
Xtract will earn a 65% interest in the additional three licences by funding exploration of not less than US$500,000 on each of the additional licences over an initial two-year period from the date of the restated agreement.
If results are positive at the end of the Additional Licences Phase 1 period, a joint venture company will be formed in respect of these Additional Licences, and this JV company will then raise funds to develop the Additional Licences.
Xtract’s overall commitment under the Restated Agreement amounts to US$3.5 million.
Refer to the news announcements of 24 August 2023 and 31 May 2024 for fuller details of the terms of the Joint Venture Agreement.
The licences cover ground in the Western Foreland geological district of northwestern Zambia, an emerging copper district, underexplored to date and subject to fresh geological remodelling by the world’s top global exploration companies.
Significant potential exists for the discovery of new, high-grade, high-tonnage, deposits of copper akin to Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula complex, situated just 100km along strike, over the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ivanhoe Mines continues to make discoveries in the region, with a total of 48Mt of copper discovered since 2008 (Ivanhoe Mine’s 2024 Company Presentation).
Recent exploration at Ivanhoe’s Kitoko deposit discovered copper mineralisation in previously unknown stratigraphic sequences, highlighting the prospectivity of additional stratigraphic units and further widening exploration potential in the whole region (Ivanhoe Mines Kitoko Summary).
In the Western Foreland geological terrane the company is using the Kamoa–Kakula deposit model to explore for copper mineralisation associated with prospective redox fronts in the ancient Western Foreland sedimentary basin architecture.
Here, structural geology and reducing traps play an important role in concentrating circulating mineralising fluids, leading to deposition of copper in stratabound sediments.
Mineralisation at Kamoa is located immediately above the redox boundary at the contact between the oxidised Mwashya Subgroup arenites and the base of the overlying reduced diamictites of the lower Grande Conglomerat, and is capped by the hanging wall Kamoa Pyritic Siltstone-Sandstone unit (Schmandt et al., 2013; Parker et al., 2013).
African Pioneer PLC, which has an interest in four licences in Northwest Zambia, three of which are adjacent to the Xtract licences, recently reported that its partner, First Quantum Minerals exploration, had confirmed the presence of copper mineralisation with diagnostic regional geological and architectural similarities consistent with Kamoa-Kakula type mineralisation.
