ASX-listed Si6 Metals has launched a new drill program at its flagship Dibete copper-silver project in Botswana, with a 15-hole campaign set to explore untested anomalies within the site’s known oxidised zones.
The company says Dibete is the first of three projects to be tested in the next four months, with its Airstrip and Malbele North sites set to be next on its exploration calendar. Previous drilling at the operation uncovered impressive results including 38m at 1.72 per cent copper and 119 grams per tonne silver from just 16m.
Additional results show a 17m hit grading 2.7 per cent copper and 40g/t silver also from only 16m. An 11m intercept hit an impressive 4.5 per cent copper and 229g/t silver from 33m, while another section revealed 3.9 per cent copper and 110g/t silver from 43m.
Si6 has engaged experienced African driller Mitchell Drilling Botswana to roll out the new program, which it believes will take about four months to complete.
At the Dibete operation, Si6 plans to drill deep holes to test the extent of known, shallow high-grade copper-silver mineralisation in areas where geophysics have suggested a substantial near-vertical orebody. A 2021 magnetic survey outlined a vertical pipe-like feature that is geometrically similar to the breccia-pipe style of mineralisation seen at the highly-productive Messina copper district, about 200km to the east.
The Messina area was named “Musina” – meaning “spoiler” in the local tongue – due to the amount of copper in the soil that would downgrade the iron produced by historic miners. The area produced about 40 million tonnes of ore yielding about 700,000 tonnes of copper from five separate mines before the last shaft was closed in 1992, ending 88 years of mining.
At Maibelle North, the company says the drilling will focus on adding tonnes to the existing mineral resource estimate by testing anomalies along strike and down dip from the known mineralisation envelope. It will also incorporate unused historic drilling results from about $7.7 million worth of holes into the existing mineral resource estimate, in addition to those to be obtained from the upcoming infill drilling campaign.
Management says it is undertaking a review of open-pit mining at Maibele North and considering options for on-site product concentration.
At the Airstrip prospect, historic drilling was shallow and returned hits of 8m at 10.39 per cent copper with 630g/t silver from 52m, 8m at 1.71 per cent copper with 51.1g/t silver from 159m, 6m at 2.7 per cent copper with 72g/t silver from 68m, 18m at 1.72 per cent copper with 27.5g/t silver from 42m and 8m at 1 per cent copper with 34g/t silver from 90m.
The Maibele project is a joint venture between Si6’s wholly-owned subsidiary Africa Metals with a 60 per cent interest and Cyprus-based BCL investments, which holds the remaining 40 per cent.
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By Michael Philipps
