Midas Minerals is adding more drilling rigs at its Deblin copper deposit in Namibia after new assays returned 10.9 metres grading 5.10% copper, as the company works towards a maiden mineral resource estimate early next year.
The company currently has two diamond rigs drilling at Deblin and plans to increase that to three, while adding another rig elsewhere across the wider Otavi Copper Project.
Midas currently has seven rigs operating across Otavi and expects the two additional rigs to arrive within a month, taking its total drilling fleet to nine.
The expansion of the drilling programme comes as Midas reported further diamond and reverse-circulation results from Deblin, where the company is defining a mineralised corridor extending at least one kilometre along strike and 500 metres down dip.
The strongest new result came from diamond hole DBDD002, which intersected 10.9 metres grading 5.10% copper from 362.5 metres, including 5.7 metres at 8.85% copper from 365.4 metres.
Diamond hole DBDD003 returned 8.3 metres grading 1.81% copper from 373.8 metres, including 6 metres at 2.21% copper from 374.5 metres.
Reverse-circulation hole DBRC015 intersected 12 metres at 1.65% copper from 162 metres, including 8 metres at 2.18%, while DBRC001 returned 9 metres at 1.67% copper from 257 metres, including 5 metres at 2.45%.
Midas said the DBDD002 intersection is about 70 metres up-dip from DBDD001, which previously returned 35.6 metres grading 3.35% copper from 367 metres and another 17.7 metres at 3.21% copper from 429.1 metres.
The DBRC015 intersection lies another 285 metres up-dip from DBDD002, giving the company additional drilling information across the mineralised system.
Midas said the drill intersections reported in the latest results are generally about 90% of estimated true width.
Managing director Mark Calderwood said drilling was showing an extensive mineralised area near the contact between volcanics and dolomite.
“Drilling at Deblin is showing an extensive area near the contact between volcanics and dolomite to be mineralised over a width of +/-10m with sub-zones showing significant blow-outs in width and/or strong grades (incl. 35.6m at 3.35% Cu plus 17.7m at 3.21% Cu, 10.9m at 5.10% Cu, 15m @ 4.15% Cu and 17m at 1.72% Cu) as demonstrated by DBDD001, DBDD002 and prior drill holes NDDH 9 and NDDH 11,” Calderwood said.
According to the company, most of the significant high-grade intersections identified so far occur within a northwest-southeast corridor that will be the target area for Deblin’s initial mineral resource estimate.
“The plan is to increase to three core rigs operating at Deblin, to systematically drill out the target corridor which remains open at depth and underexplored along strike,” Calderwood said.
Midas still has assays pending from eight diamond holes and 12 RC holes at Deblin.
The company first reported significant visible chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite mineralisation in DBDD001, DBDD002 and DBDD003 in June.
Assays for DBDD001 were released in August, confirming the 35.6-metre intersection at 3.35% copper and the separate 17.7-metre intersection at 3.21%. The company has now received assays for DBDD002 and DBDD003.
Midas said copper at Deblin occurs predominantly as chalcopyrite within calcite-enriched Ombombo dolomite and as chalcopyrite and bornite within underlying heavily sheared metavolcanic rocks.
The company said the mineralised rocks are locally enriched in gold, silver and molybdenum and contain low levels of lead, zinc and arsenic.
Deblin is located about 18 kilometres southeast of Otavi, 25 kilometres west-southwest of the Kombat copper mine and about 70 kilometres east-southeast of Midas’ T-13 deposit.
The deposit forms part of Midas’ Otavi Copper Project, where the company is undertaking resource drilling at three deposits — T-13, Deblin and Spaatzu — while also preparing exploration drilling at other drill-ready prospects.
Midas owns 100% of the approximately 1,776-square-kilometre Otavi Project. The project also contains the T-13 deposit, where the company announced an initial inferred mineral resource of 10.5 million tonnes grading 1.6% copper and 21 grams per tonne silver in April 2026.
Midas plans to deliver an updated mineral resource estimate for T-13 and maiden estimates for Deblin and Spaatzu in the first quarter of 2027.
“We are working hard to accelerate our exploration at Otavi as quickly as possible and deliver an updated mineral resource estimate for the T-13 deposit and initial resources for Deblin and Spaatzu early next year,” Calderwood said.
The planned arrival of the two additional rigs will expand Midas’ drilling fleet across Otavi from seven to nine, with three of those rigs expected to work at Deblin.
Midas reported A$29.2 million in cash at 30 June 2026.
