This year was a good one for Equinox Resources NL. Next year will be better. This is the belief of Equinox chairman John Landrigan.
According to the company’s annual report, he said whilst the outlook for metals prices has improved, industry enthusiasm for exploration remains moderate.
“However we would expect that as the industry feels the benefit of better prices, exploration will again become a priority with the majors thus providing greater opportunities for junior explorers,” he said.
Mr Landrigan outlined the company strategy which allows it to pursue an active exploration program, while carefully managing its cash resources.
During the year $7.1 million was spent on company projects with only $1.6 million coming from its own funds.
This year Equinox will concentrate mainly on projects in Africa where “a substantial effort is now being directed to drilling prospective targets”.
“We remain very excited about prospects in Zambia,” Mr Landrigan added.
Equinox and its joint venture partner, Anglo American, regard Zambia as having some of the most prospective accessible base metal terrain in Africa.
The Zambezi joint venture has delineated numerous high priority targets throughout extensive tenement holdings and has approved a substantial budget, funded by Anglo American, for the 1999 field season.
Equinox has also entered into a joint venture with a large international mining company, Phelps Dodge, on the Lumwana copper project in Zambia.
The project is rated a major copper resource hosting 520 million tonnes grading at 1.06 per cent copper, with potential gold, cobalt and uranium credits.
Equinox is presently engaged in a due diligence study to verify the resource and confirm the exploration potential.
