Orion Minerals Ltd (ASX:ORN) has established a maiden resource of 5.2 million tonnes containing 253,000 tonnes zinc and 67,000 tonnes copper for the Vardocube area within the Prieska project in South Africa.
Providing a back story, the Prieska zinc-copper deposit is recorded as one of the world’s 30 largest volcanogenic massive sulphide ore (VMS) deposits.
The resource for Vardocube is in the southern strike extension of the Prieska VMS deposit.
Importantly, the total resource for the Prieska Zinc-Copper Project has now increased to 29.4 million tonnes containing 1,126,000 tonnes of zinc at 3.8% zinc and 365,000 tonnes of copper at 1.2% copper.
Potential for significant southern strike extensions
Orion managing director and chief executive Errol Smart said: “The addition of the Vardocube Prospecting Right has included an important higher-grade extension to the Prieska Deep Sulphide deposit.
We are confident that the application of the exploration techniques that were successful in extending the northern end of the deposit on Repli will again deliver significant extensions on this southern strike extension, which is also open on dip and strike.”
Next steps
Infill and extension drilling on the Vardocube Prospecting Right is planned to begin shortly.
The drilling together with the use of downhole geophysics is expected to allow a further expansion of the Vardocube resource and an upgrade in classification in the near term.