Power Metal Resources PLC (LO:POW) said drilling by 18.26%-owned Kalahari Key Mineral Exploration Pty Ltd was providing further encouraging signs at the Molopo Farms Complex project in Botswana.
A second, angled hole at the project has been drilled to a final depth of 598 metres in ultramafic rocks and the drill core, along with that from the first drill hole, have been transported to Lobatse where it is being cut by the Botswana Geoscience Institute.
An agreement has also been signed with the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, with selected quarter core samples to be sent to the university's geology department this week for mineralogical and thin section analysis.
Logging the second cut core has identified disseminated sulphide mineralisation below 500m drill hole depth, notably in the section marked as a target by the geophysics, further to disseminated sulphide mineralisation identified around 308-313m depth from the initial core inspection announced last month.
A report received from Aster Funds Ltd in Toronto has identified about 14 new targets in Molopo's feeder zone, with priority targets recommended to be ranked for follow-up ground exploration.
On top of that, down-hole geophysics data is expected to be acquired in the next phase of the current programme, which is expected to help identify any massive sulphide mineralisation proximal to the disseminated sulphides.
"Identification of additional visible sulphides deeper in hole KKME 1-6 gives further encouraging signals to the prospect of discovering significant mineralisation within the Molopo Farms Complex," said Power Metal's chief executive, Paul Johnson.
"So far we are encouraged by the indications from core logging, and await assay results and mineralogical studies to confirm the sulphide minerals present. To be absolutely clear we make no assumption as to which sulphide minerals are present and await the assay results, and those results will likely guide the next exploration steps.
"The identification of up to 14 new targets for ground exploration in the feeder zone from the Aster Mapping also adds to the evidence of district scale prospectivity.
"Substantial new data continues to be generated on a relatively untested environment, advancing a journey of discovery in a geological setting where there is the clear potential for large scale metal deposits."
The AIM-listed explorer and developer has previously agreed to lift its stake in Kalahari Key up to 40% by funding US$0.5mln of further exploration at the site by the end of April. So far it has spent almost US$393,000 of this.
