Arc Minerals* (LON:ARCM) – High-grade copper seen in next two drill holes at Cheyeza
Price 4.7p, Mkt Cap £33.5m
(The Cheyeza project is 66% owned by Arc Minerals through its holding in Zamsort)
STRONG BUY
- Arc Minerals report further high-grade copper in drilling at Cheyeza in Zambia.
- Drilling at hole 4 shows significantly higher copper grades which need to be further verified before release to double check the grade of the results.
- Drilling at hole 5 some 200m from hole 4 shows intersections of:
- 28.5m @ 1.32% copper
- 13m @ 2.31% copper from 26.2m down the hole.
- 7.5m @ 0.3% from 59.6m
- These results follow on from:
- Hole 1:
- 3.94m, 0.72% copper from 35.8m down hole
- Hole 2 results:
- 25m of 1.05% copper mineralisation from just 2m depth including:
- 1.7% copper over 9.3m from 18.5m depth and
- 13.34% copper over a short 0.56m intersection from 27m depth.
- Hole 3 - Technical issues with one of the rigs (since resolved) mean this hole has not yet been drilled.
- The Cheyeza target is estimated to be around 3,000m by 800m in size according to soil geochemistry and geophysics.
- Recommendation: we recommend Arc Minerals as a STRONG BUY due to it growing potential for a major copper discovery at the Cheyeza project in Zambia. The potential value of a significant copper discovery is likely to be a multiple of the current market capitalisation with the market recognising the value of the discovery on further drill results and resource estimation.
- Other significant discoveries in Zambia in recent years include Sentinel in 2014 with 939mt grading 0.49% copper just 40km away from Kalaba and is producing >190,000tpa of copper. Lumwana which is 100km to the east also has a reserve of 758mt grading 0.51% copper and is producing >116,000tpa of copper.
- Note: Technical issues with one of the rigs (since resolved) mean this hole has not yet been drilled.
- Well done to Vassilios (Sid) Carellas and the rest of the exploration team for their work in the Cheyeza discovery.
- West Lunga: The successful intersection of copper at Cheyeza raises the probability of a further copper discovery at the West Lunga target which contains anomalous copper in soil samples over 6km of strike.
- ARC’s geological team and their consultants African Mining Consultants and Douglas Haynes Discovery Ltd. are targeting the same horizon that hosts the world-class Kamoa deposit to the North in the DRC.
- Exploration theory: it is possible that ARC may have discovered a higher-grade portion of the Lufilian Arc which hosts a number of the world’s highest grade copper mines in Zambia and the DRC before the heads towards Namibia.
Conclusion: The drill assays indicate the presence of a significant mass of near-surface, higher-grade copper at Cheyeza.
The results suggest a minimum 200m continuation of higher-grade, near-surface copper mineralisation from the hole 4.
Further drilling will give better indication of the extent and continuity of the mineralisation.
While it is still early days with just five drill holes into the deposit the results already appear to indicate good potential for a mineable copper resource on further definition.
*SP Angel acts as nomad and broker to Arc Minerals.
Analysts
John Meyer – 0203 470 0490
Simon Beardsmore – 0203 470 0484
Sergey Raevskiy – 0203 470 0474
James Mills -0203 470 0486
Sales
Richard Parlons – 0203 470 0472
Jonathan Williams – 0203 470 0471
Abigail Wayne – 0203 470 0534
Rob Rees – 0203 470 0535
SP Angel
Prince Frederick House
35-39 Maddox Street London
W1S 2PP
*SP Angel are the No1 integrated nomad and broker by number of mining brokerage clients on AIM according to the AIM Advisers Ranking Guide (joint brokerships excluded)
+SP Angel employees may have previously held, or currently hold, shares in the companies mentioned in this note.