Significant Cobalt Mineralisation at Hanns Camp

RNS Number : 0232Y

Strategic Minerals PLC

28 February 2017

 

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.

28 February 2017

Strategic Minerals plc

("Strategic Minerals" or the "Company" or "SML")

Significant Cobalt Mineralisation Discovered at Hanns Camp

Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM: SML; USOTC; SMCDY), the diversified mineral production and development company, is pleased to announce that the re-assaying of the maiden drill programme at its Hanns Camp project in Western Australia has identified significant cobalt mineralisation ("Co") mineralisation.

Highlights

·     Re-assaying of selected intervals at the Hanns Camp maiden drill programme has resulted in the discovery of significant cobalt mineralisation

·     Cobalt mineralisation of up to 0.18% Co associated with and coincident Platinum Group Elements ("PGE") mineralisation

·     Significant intersections recorded 16m at 0.10% Co from 38m for drill hole HC00 (including 1m at 0.18%)

·     Drill hole HC001, recorded 4m at 0.12% Co from 19m

·     Increasing interest for cobalt given strong demand from battery market

Commenting, John Peters, Managing Director of Strategic Minerals, said:

"The confirmation of the potential for a significant cobalt deposit comes at a time when investors are showing an increasing interest in cobalt projects to feed the supply of lithium ion batteries in electronic equipment. The identification of these cobalt readings in two of the 2016 drilling cores is extremely encouraging as their positioning provides us the opportunity to further assess the possible exploration target at a reasonable capital cost.

We are also encouraged by the fact that the drilling programme has identified the strike length to be at least two kilometres."

Further Information

The cobalt mineralisation at Hanns Camp is considered significant and geologically unique given the zone overlaps, and is coincident with 10m at 0.4g/t total Platinum Group Elements ('PGE') from 36m and peak values up to 21.3% chromium ("Cr") and 19% manganese ("Mn").

·     HC003 recorded 10m @ 0.4g/t total PGE from 36m

Further analysis is being carried out. No previous cobalt analysis had been conducted prior to re-assaying three diamond holes (as previously reported on 3 August 2016). Very limited previous drilling has occurred over the prospect and is summarised below.

·     15-hole open percussion programme drilled in 1971 and 1977 totalling 808 metres 

·     27-hole air-core programme drilled in 2007 on two regional traverses totalling 906 metres  

Although no direct cobalt analysis exists, geological logging shows an intact and well preserved lateritic enrichment zone. The extent of this enrichment zone at Hanns Camp has the potential to host a significant exploration target. Drilling to date has traced this over a two kilometre strike length.

Cobalt is of increasing interest given the shortage of supply and increasing demand for lithium ion batteries. 

All reported cobalt and platinum results in this announcement were determined by Bureau Veritas Minerals laboratory in Perth, one of Australia's leading minerals laboratories. Nickel was determined via mixed acid digest, followed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy ('ICP-AES') detection. PGEs were determined via fire assay followed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry determination.

Hanns Camp forms part the Laverton Project, of which Strategic Minerals recently secured an interest via its agreement to acquire up to a 50% of Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd ("CARE").  Hanns Camp is located 250 kilometres north-east of the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 12 kilometres north-east of the town of Laverton in the North-Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. The prospect is easily accessible using existing tracks from Laverton, one of the main regional towns in the area.

A map of the region and the drilling targets can be found on the Company's website under the CARE project - www.strategicminerals.net/projects/iron-glen.html.

For further information, please contact:

Strategic Minerals plc John Peters Managing Director www.strategicminerals.net Follow Strategic Minerals on: Twitter:   @SML_Minerals                                                            LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-minerals-plc	[phone]
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Notes to Editors

Strategic Minerals Plc is an AIM-quoted, diversified mineral development and production company with projects in the United States of America, the UK and Australia. The Company is focused on acquiring and developing cash generative, high quality projects which meet local market demand for commodities and utilising this cash flow to undertake value added exploration. 

In September 2011, Strategic Minerals purchased its first cash generating asset; the Cobre magnetite tailings dam project in New Mexico, USA which it brought into production in 2012 and which continues to provide a revenue stream for the Company. The portfolio was expanded in January 2016 with the acquisition of shares in Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd, which holds tenements in Western Australia and the Northern Territory that are prospective for nickel sulphides, gold and rare earths. In May 2016, an additional exploration asset was acquired when the company entered into an agreement with New Age Exploration Limited to acquire up to 50% of the Redmoor Tin/Tungsten project in Cornwall, UK. This 50% acquisition has now been completed.

Responsible Persons Statement

Strategic Resource Management principal geologist Andrew Kohler, who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has reviewed and verified the information contained in this announcement. Mr Kohler has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' and a Qualified Person as defined in the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies dated June 2009. Mr Kohler consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

 

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