Drilling Update & New Licence Applications

RNS Number : 4462P

Chesterfield Resources PLC

19 October 2021

 

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

19 October 2021

Encouraging drill intersections and new licence applications in Cyprus

Chesterfield Resources is pleased to announce that recent diamond drill holes have intersected further mineralisation that could form a continuation of a known deposit. The company has also applied for four additional mineral exploration licences in Cyprus targeting copper and gold totalling an additional area of 9.29 km².

· Encouraging mineralisation encountered in Cyprus diamond drilling

· New applications for licences containing known mineralisation

· Application areas include significant historic exploration, together with under-explored target areas.

Said Executive Chairman, Martin French, "We have decided to continue with our diamond drill programme in Cyprus after intercepting encouraging mineralisation in a number of holes that indicates a potential extension of a previously drilled system. While these intersections have yet to be assayed, they are at a similar style and depth to known grade. We are hopeful that they could form a continuous deposit, which is still open along strike.

After an appraisal of archive and other material we have decided to apply for a number of new licences with encouraging historic drilling and geophysics work.  We will use modern exploration techniques and enhanced geological understanding to progress exploration and create new targets for our next season's work."

The Mansoura application is located 18 km NE of the current Troodos West permits and covers an area of 4.05 km². This prospective permit contains a 1.50 km long NNW trending belt of 14 gossanous surface expressions with a coincident gold soil anomaly (ref Geochemical Atlas of Cyprus). The majority of historic exploration work took place in the 1950's and consisted of spontaneous polarisation and surface electromagnetic geophysical surveys alongside minor pitting of gossans. There is considerable scope to augment this historic work with more modern techniques and information derived from the company's recent exploration at its Troodos West exploration programme.

The Perapedhi application is an eastward extension of Chesterfield's Discovery South permit areas. The application covers an area of 2.22 km², containing a Basal Group gossan displaying malachite and covellite mineralisation. A historic United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) rotary drill hole (30/65), from 1968 intercepted 40 ft (12.19 m) @ approximately 1.0 % Cu from 9.14 m (unverified). No follow up geophysics was conducted leaving potential for nearby, shallow copper and gold mineralisation.

Located 24 km south of Nicosia, the Agrelloti application covers an area of 2.19 km² within the Troodos East project area. The Agrelloti locality is positioned on a known NW-SE mineralised trend on the eastern side of the Larnaca graben. Historic exploration work included an airborne EM and magnetics survey with morelocalised Induced polarisation (IP) and micro-gravity work also conducted showing coincident anomalies. The historic UNDP rotary drill hole 13/68 intercepted 30.78 m @ 0.80 % Cu & 13.00 % S from 3.05 m (unverified). Additionally, a historic grab sample of massive sulphides collected by the United Nations Revolving Fund for Natural Resources Exploration (UNRFNRE) from a 14 m deep water well returned 0.18 % Cu, 9.32 % Zn, 12.40 g/t Au & 59.30 g/t Ag, showing the prospect's potential for polymetallic mineralisation.

With an area of 0.83 km², Philani is the smallest licence application and focuses around known massive sulphide mineralisation. The site is 1.50 km away from the historic Kambia Mines that produced 557 kt @ 1.5 % Cu & 25-47 % S in the period 1970-1977 (Cyprus Mine Services). Historic diamond drill hole 10FL02, announced at Philani in 2010, intersected 25.50 m @ 2.04 % Cu, 2.42 % Zn, 0.25 g/t Au & 9.58 g/t Ag from 11.00 m, including 9.00 m @ 5.12 % Cu, 5.66 % Zn, 0.62 g/t Au & 25.07 g/t Ag.

About Chesterfield Resources  

Chesterfield Resources is a copper focussed exploration company centred around a newly-acquired large exploration project in Labrador Canada, together with its existing project in   Cyprus.

The exploration technical team is led by two highly experienced industry geologists   Neil O'Brien, formally SVP Exploration & New Business Development, Lundin Mining,  and Dave Cliff, previously Head of Exploration Europe, Rio Tinto.

The company has also acquired a major backer. In December 2020, Polymetal International, the   FTSE100 mining group, made a 23% investment in Chesterfield via a placing of new shares, as strategic backing for the company's project in Cyprus.

In Canada, the Adeline copper project is located within the western half of the Central Mineral Belt, a 260 km long metal-rich belt located in Central Labrador, eastern Canada. The Adeline property is comprised of five contiguous mineral licenses totalling 29,725 ha (297.3 km2), covering the full extent of the Seal Lake basin, an approximate 40km long by 10 km wide geological structure which contains some 250 copper prospects.  The project is close to the regional service hub of Goose Bay.

The Seal Lake basin has seen extensive regional exploration over the years resulting in a rich exploration database. Trenching and channel sampling has established the presence of laterally continuous high-grade copper beds. However there has been relatively little drill testing, largely due to the lack of road access. Where sulphide mineralisation becomes massive the grades are extremely high, commonly 10-30% Cu due to the high tenor of chalcocite-bornite.

The company has recently undertaken the re-modelling of the all the historic regional exploration datasets with the latest visualisation software tools. It has assembled a team of expert consultants who have decades of experience in this belt.

An initial field season, which has just been completed, investigated previously identified as well as new prospect areas. This is expected to generate a significant pipeline of quality drill targets to test for significant extents of high-grade copper-silver mineralised grey beds. The company is progressing project planning and application procedures.

In Cyprus the company holds the largest mineral exploration licence area of any operator on the island.

Cyprus   is regarded as a high-quality exploration location. It is a member of the EU, and its legal system is based on English common law. An opportunity exists because there has been minimal exploration activity on the island in the last 46 years since the invasion by   Turkey   in 1974 put a halt to what had been a very active mining industry.  

The current focus of exploration is in the Troodos West group of licences belonging to the company, with around 30 defined targets in an area measuring 10km by 10km. The objective is to discover several VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) deposits in close proximity to each other to create a mining project with a centralised processing unit.  

While copper is the main exploration target, it is noteworthy that gold was not historically exploited in   Cyprus . Gold has been encountered in several locations in the exploration target area and is an important part of the exploration objective.  This also includes a waste dump opportunity that will be appraised, called Limni South Gold and an encouraging potentially enlarged mineralised zone described above.

The company announced high grade polymetallic results from its late season 2020 drilling season and has this year embarked on an enlarged integrated 2021 geophysics, percussion and diamond drilling exploration campaign. The company is in the process of completing its diamond drilling campaign with results expected in November. In addition, the company has recently identified a new gold oxide project name Limni South Gold, based upon encouraging samples at a waste dump as well as drilling in the vicinity, with a program of further test work being planned. Additionally, the company is also drilling to explore the potential extension of a previously identified mineralised occurrence.

Chesterfield Resources is committed to world-class environmental standards in all of its operations to explore for copper, which is essential to developing clean technology projects worldwide. The company hopes to develop industry and opportunities for the benefit of Canada and the   Republic of Cyprus.  

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]

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker):         Tel:  [phone]

John Prior & Hugh Rich

First Equity Limited (joint Broker):

Jason Robertson Tel: +44 ( 0) 207 330 1883

 

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