Midas Minerals has intersected two wide zones grading more than 3% copper in its first diamond drill hole at the Deblin deposit near Otavi, prompting the company to expand drilling as it works towards defining an initial mineral resource early next year.
The first assay results from hole DBDD001 returned 35.6 metres at 3.35% copper, 6.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.19g/t gold from a depth of 367 metres.
A second zone, starting at 429.1 metres, returned 17.7 metres at 3.21% copper, 11.3g/t silver and 0.09g/t gold.
The results confirm visible copper mineralisation reported by Midas in June and represent the first assays from the company’s drilling at Deblin, part of its wider Otavi Copper Project in Namibia.
The hole also contained higher-grade precious metal intervals, including 9.3 metres at 0.65g/t gold and 16.6g/t silver from 386.3 metres. Individual sub-intervals returned gold grades of up to 1.98g/t, silver of up to 42g/t and molybdenum of up to 1,720 parts per million.
Midas managing director Mark Calderwood described DBDD001 as one of the company’s strongest holes drilled so far at the Otavi project.
“The first drill hole at Deblin is one of the best Midas has drilled to date on the Otavi Project. What strikes me is the consistency and tenor of copper mineralisation over the two substantial intervals of 35.6m and 17.7m respectively,” Calderwood said.
“The geological setting is very impressive based on the width of favourable lithological units and the intensity of alteration and deformation.”
The hole was positioned between two holes drilled by previous project owner Nexa Resources, including one that returned 15 metres at 4.15% copper, 14.6g/t silver and 0.22g/t gold, and another that intersected 17 metres at 1.72% copper.
Midas has moved quickly to determine the scale of Deblin, completing another 9 diamond holes and 28 reverse-circulation holes across a mineralised footprint that now extends for at least 1 km along strike and 500 m vertically.
The system remains open at depth and underexplored along strike.
“With three rigs operating at Deblin, we are systematically drilling out the resource target corridor with a strike of at least 1,000m which extends from surface to 500m vertically, remaining open at depth and underexplored along strike,” Calderwood said.
Midas currently has two diamond rigs undertaking initial resource drilling at Deblin, while a reverse-circulation rig is carrying out exploration drilling.
An additional diamond rig is expected to arrive this month, while the RC rig will be moved from Deblin to test nearby regional prospects.
The expansion forms part of a much larger exploration campaign across the Otavi project.
Midas currently has seven drill rigs operating across the project and expects two more to arrive during the current quarter, bringing the total to nine.
The company is simultaneously conducting resource drilling at the T-13, Deblin, and Spaatzu deposits and plans to test additional drill-ready exploration targets.
It is targeting an updated mineral resource estimate for T-13 and maiden resource estimates for Deblin and Spaatzu early next year.
T-13 already has an inferred mineral resource of 10.5 million tonnes grading 1.6% copper and 21g/t silver, while Deblin has yet to receive a maiden resource estimate.
Further assays from Deblin are expected during the third quarter, including results from DBDD002 and DBDD003, in which Midas previously reported visible mineralisation of chalcopyrite, bornite, and chalcocite.
Midas owns 100% of the approximately 1,776-square-kilometre Otavi Copper Project and had A$29.2 million in cash at the end of June to fund its accelerated exploration programme.
