Diamond Drilling Planned for Sept, and Ops Update

RNS Number : 6379W

Chesterfield Resources PLC

20 August 2020

 

Chesterfield Resources / EPIC: CHF / Market: LSE / Sector: Mining

20 August 2020

Chesterfield Resources Plc

Diamond drilling planned to commence in September, and operational update

· 2,000m of diamond drilling to commence early September

· Three new percussion targets drilled with inconclusive results

· Next phase of percussion drilling to be co-ordinated with diamond drilling

Chesterfield Resources plc is pleased to announce that it will commence a 2,000 meter diamond drill programme in early September. The first six holes, comprising approximately 1,000m have been identified and are drill ready, with access infrastructure already established. Some of these holes will twin previously drilled percussion holes. The second 1,000m of diamond drill targeting has been kept flexible and will be firmed up after initial diamond drilling, with further percussion drilling where necessary.

Martin French, Executive Chairman said "We are excited to be diamond drilling a number of our targets. This will be a final phase of test work after considerable target development. September is going to be a very busy month for us. The partial lifting of Covid-related travel restrictions has allowed us to fly three team members to site who are now making preparations for the new drill campaigns. More information on specific targets will be released nearer the date."

Percussion drilling

Another round of seven percussion holes has recently been drilled on three targets, Sliver, Copse West and Reef Cover. These targets are in a different geological setting than those drilled previously. They are interpreted to be in structurally-controlled basins where predominantly limestone and clay sediments overlie the volcanic rocks that are expected to host VMS mineralisation. The sediments in two of these targets proved much thicker than expected and presented challenging conditions. The drilling ran into a variety of technical issues and, as such, these targets remain untested.

Martin French, Executive Chairman said  "A lot of the technical problems encountered were due to the nature of the percussion drill, which is much better suited to drilling through the hard lavas of the previous round of holes, than through lighter sedimentary material that can crumble or be prone to ground water. Despite these issues, these are still considered high-ranking targets and we will look at new techniques to test them later. The next phase of percussion drilling will now be focussed complementing the diamond drill programme."

A summary of the holes is as follows:

The holes at Sliver encountered deep sedimentary cover. Hole 20PDSLN01 did not encounter pillow lavas until 126m and then encountered extremely strong aquifers causing the hole to collapse and be abandoned at 165m. Hole 20PDSLN02 did not reach pillow lavas, with dry sediments collapsing into the hole and causing it be abandoned at 175m. Sliver therefore remains untested as the drilling did not reach the target horizon at depth.

At Reef Cover, drilling ran into limestone blocks subsiding into underlying clays which resulted in two blocked holes at shallow depths (less than 36m). A third hole at the same site reached 127m before it too was abandoned due to clays collapsing into the hole.

At Copse West, two holes were drilled to 150m and 105m. No mineralisation was encountered at the target horizon nor at further depth in the lavas. However, the Copse West target is approximately 1km long and two thirds of this target has yet to be tested.

The company has developed an extensive list of 30 VMS targets within a 5km radius at Troodos West. These are shallow targets of up to around 200m underground, which underlie historical mine workings on the surface. Further targets, and target extensions, will be tested in the next round of percussion drilling.

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About Chesterfield Resources Plc

Chesterfield Resources is a copper-gold exploration and development Company active in Cyprus. The Company strategy is to generate value for shareholders by discovering and developing multiple deposits to production. Chesterfield is in the advanced stage exploration in on its Troodos West licence area, and has a large bank of licence areas elsewhere in Cyprus, either granted or under application.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

**ENDS**

 For further information, please visit  www.chesterfieldresourcesplc.com  or contact:

Chesterfield Resources plc: Martin French, Executive Chairman	Tel: [phone]
Fox-Davies Capital Limited (Broker): Daniel Fox-Davies	Tel: +44 ( 0)20 3884 8450

 

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