TIDMABM
RNS Number : 2549H
African Battery Metals PLC
14 November 2018
African Battery Metals plc / EPIC: ABM / Market: AIM
14 November 2018
African Battery Metals plc ("ABM" or the "Company")
Update on Exploration Activities
African Battery Metals plc, the AIM listed African focused
exploration company developing projects in strategic battery
metals, is pleased to provide an update on its exploration
activities in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, (the
"DRC").
Overview
Commenced exploration work on the licences in Cameroon acquired
-- as part of the purchase of Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (see
release of 8(th) August 2018), ("ABM's Cameroon Licences"
or "Cobalt Blue Permits" in figures 1, 2 & 3)), which are
close to and in part contiguous with the Nkamouna cobalt-nickel-manganese
project(1) which was historically majority owned by Geovic
Mining Corporation ("Geovic"). Nkamouna hosts one of the
world's largest undeveloped cobalt resource outside the
DRC(2) :
ABM has acquired key geophysical data, which helps
identify the source of cobalt-nickel mineralisation
observed in the region of the ABM Cameroon Licences;
Commissioned desk top report and site visit to AMB
Cameroon Licences by Sahara Natural Resources Ltd ("Sahara"),
a highly qualified independent group specialist in
African exploration; and
Identified a series of targets on ABM's Cameroon Licences
for follow-up work, which exhibit the same geological
signature displayed by the cobalt-nickel licences historically
held by Geovic.
Received assay results from the auger programme on ABM's
-- part owned Kisinka licence in the DRC, which provide minimal
evidence of cobalt or copper mineralisation.
References to figures relate to the version visible in PDF
format by clicking the link below:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/2549H_1-2018-11-13.pdf
ABM CEO, Roger Murphy, said,
"I am very excited by the opportunity we have acquired in
Cameroon. We know from Geovic's past exploration work at Nkamouna,
that this area hosts one of the world's largest non-DRC cobalt
resources(2) , and that we are in 'elephant country' for cobalt and
nickel. We believe we understand why the mineralisation is where it
is in the licences historically held by Geovic and, as the charts
in this release show, we have similar areas within ABM's Cameroon
Licences. I look forward to implementing an exploration programme,
which I believe should confirm the presence of cobalt and nickel on
ABM's Cameroon Licences.
At the same time, I'm disappointed that our work so far on
Kisinka in the DRC has not yet provided significant evidence of
cobalt or copper mineralisation. However, Kisinka is a large
licence area in the right area on mapped Roan geology, with large
copper-cobalt mines nearby. Our work to date has only covered a
small fraction of the licence so we therefore cannot rule anything
out yet. We will assess our next steps on Kisinka relative to those
for our licences in Ivory Coast and Cameroon."
CAMEROON - DATA ACQUISITION
ABM has studied the geological work undertaken by Geovic, and NI
43-101 Technical Report commissioned by Geovic, to locate
economically viable cobalt-nickel mineralisation in the region, and
used it to identify targets on ABM's Cameroon Licences. ABM used
two strands of evidence, viz:
1. Geophysical data. According to Geovic's geological work, the
source of the cobalt-nickel mineralisation in the region is a
series of ultramafic intrusions into the country rock. Ultramafic
rocks are highly magnetic and so stand out on aeromagnetic maps. To
help identify the ultramafic source rocks, ABM acquired
aeromagnetic data for the area which is illustrated in figure 2
below. It is apparent that Messea, one of the cobalt-nickel
licences historically held by Geovic, has a very strong magnetic
signature. As figure 2 also illustrates, there are large areas of
magnetic highs across the ABM Cameroon Licences.
2. Topography. All the seven historically Geovic-owned
cobalt-nickel targets represent topographic highs or plateaus in an
area incised by rivers. Areas where these topographic highs
coincide with aeromagnetic highs provide the strongest likelihood
of preservation of the cobalt-nickel mineralisation. Figure 3 below
shows regional topography. On the ABM Cameroon Licences, it is
evident that the northern end of Ngoila North (which is a
continuation of the Messea cobalt-nickel block), and much of Ekok
and Ntam East all have elevated areas which coincide with
aeromagnetic anomalies.
As figures 2 & 3 below illustrate, the ABM Cameroon Licences
have several areas where topographic highs overlie areas of
elevated aeromagnetic intensity. It is these areas where ABM's
anticipated next stage of exploration will focus. Given that
mineralisation at Nkamouna is found from around 5m to 22m in depth,
ABM will need to devise an exploration approach which involves
either deep pitting or use of a man-portable auger. ABM looks
forward to updating the market as it designs an exploration
programme for these licences.
SITE VISIT
A team of Sahara geologists visited ABM's Cameroon licences
during July 2018. The primary purpose of the visit was to assess
the work necessary for a systematic exploration programme focused
on the targets identified by the topographic and aeromagnetic data,
but whilst on the licences, a series of shallow soil samples were
collected on transects across each licence. Expectations from this
shallow sampling were limited as all the cobalt and nickel
mineralisation at the licences historically held by Geovic were
found at depths of greater than 5m. In order to penetrate down to
the anticipated depth of mineralisation, either hand-dug pits of
over 5m depth will need to be excavated across the licences or a
man-portable mechanical auger will need to be utilised.
GEOVIC - HISTORY & ECONOMIC GEOLOGY
Geovic was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2006 to
follow up on nickel-cobalt mineralisation reported by a United
Nations Exploration Programme in Cameroon in the 1980s. Geovic,
through its 60.5% owned subsidiary Geovic Cameroon, conducted an
extensive exploration programme over several years over its licence
area, see figure 1. This work identified seven plateaus in the
region where cobalt and nickel mineralisation was recorded. These
plateaus, named Nkamouna, Mada, Rapodjombo, North Mang, South Mang,
Messia and Kondong are illustrated in figure 2.
The cobalt and nickel mineralisation was found at between 5m -
20m depth in the deeply weathering profile or laterite that overlay
areas with underlying ultramafic intrusions. The ultramafics acted
as the source of the metals and the laterite concentrated them to
economic levels. Laterites are frequently sources of cobalt and
nickel mineralisation in equatorial regions of the world, including
SE Asia, Australia and Latin America as well as Africa. Over time,
this laterite profile has been eroded away by the rivers with
transect the area and is only preserved in a series of plateaus
between the rivers.
Although every plateau was explored and cobalt-nickel
mineralisation was reported, given the very large scale of the
licence area and its inaccessibility, Geovic concentrated
exploration work on Nkamouna and Mada. The final NI 43-101
compliant Mineral Resource declared by Geovic totalled 323.2
million tonnes at 0.21% Cobalt, 0.63% Nickel and 1.36% Manganese,
see Table 1 below. A full NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report was
completed by SRK in June 2011(3) with an Ore Reserve of 54.7million
tonnes grading 0.25% Cobalt, 0.69% Nickel and 1.33% Manganese.
Table 1 Geovic 43-101 Resource dated 02 June 2011
Category kt Co % Ni % Mn % Co (t) Ni (t) Mn (t)
Measured 59,806 0.24 0.68 1.37 143,532 406,674 819,329
-------- ----- ----- ----- -------- ---------- ----------
Indicated 60,794 0.22 0.62 1.35 133,747 376,923 802,481
-------- ----- ----- ----- -------- ---------- ----------
Total M&I 120,599 0.23 0.65 1.35 277,279 783,597 1,621,810
-------- ----- ----- ----- -------- ---------- ----------
Inferred 202,551 0.20 0.59 1.20 405,102 1,195,051 2,430,612
-------- ----- ----- ----- -------- ---------- ----------
Total M,
I & I 323,150 0.21 0.61 1.26 682,381 1,978,648 4,052,421
-------- ----- ----- ----- -------- ---------- ----------
Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report, Geovic Mining Corp by SRK
Consulting, 02 June 2011(3)
Geovic explored several means to raise the significant finance
necessary to fund construction of a mine at Nkamouna, including a
partial sale to a Chinese Company looking to offtake production
from the project. But cobalt fell from a peak of $50/lb
($110,000/t) in 2008 to trade between $10/lb - $15/lb ($22,000/t to
$33,000/t) from mid 2012 to end 2015. At these low prices Geovic
failed to raise finance and the Company was subsequently delisted
from the Toronto Stock Exchange in June 2014.
KISINKA ASSAYS
After significant delays due to a variety of factors including
changes to the Mining Code in the DRC, and administrative delays,
also in part due to those changes, assays on the samples submitted
following ABM's auger programme of two transects across the Kisinka
licence in DRC have now been returned. The results are
disappointing, with cobalt grades of 0.002% to 0.021% and copper of
up to 0.058%. These are disappointing given that the licence is on
the Roan rocks, which host most of DRC's cobalt, and also given the
licence is within 30km of seven producing cobalt and copper mines.
As previously noted, however, the licence is over 50sq.km. and in
excess of seven kilometres long. Additionally the licence is
covered with up to 30 metres of soil cover, which is why augering
was attempted. These results do not invalidate Kisinka as an
exploration target. Further work on the licence will be assessed in
the context of the opportunities ABM management sees in its
projects in Ivory Coast (see release of 16(th) October 2018) and in
Cameroon.
Footnotes:
(1) Geovic Mining Corporation released a Feasibility Study on
its Nkamouna Co-Ni-Mn project in 2011, via www.sedar.com. The total
Measured, Indicated & Inferred Resource totalled 323.15 million
tonnes at 0.21% cobalt, 0.61% nickel and 1.26% manganese - see
Table 1 below for more detail
(2) Core Consultants described Celsius Resources Ltd.'s Opowu
Resource in Namibia as the largest outside the DRC. Nkamouna's
historic resource is significantly larger than Opowu's. Source:
https://www.coreconsultantsgroup.com/largest-cobalt-copper-resource-outside-drc/
(3)
https://sedar.com/FindCompanyDocuments.do?lang=EN&page_no=2&company_search=Geovic&document_selection=0&industry_group=A&FromDate=01&FromMonth=01&FromYear=2010&ToDate=31&ToMonth=12&ToYear=2012&Variable=Issuer
**Ends**
The information contained within this announcement is considered
to be inside information prior to its release, as defined in
Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No.596/2014 and is
disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under
Article 17 of those Regulations.
For further information please visit https://www.abmplc.com/ or
contact:
African Battery Metals plc
Roger Murphy (CEO) +44 (0) 20 7583 8304
SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nomad
and Broker)
Ewan Leggat +44 (0) 20 3470 0470
Notes to Editors:
ABM is an AIM listed, Africa focused, resource company exploring
for the key metals used in next generation batteries that fuel the
new electric vehicle revolution. The Board and team of advisors,
who have proven expertise in African exploration, mining and
project generation, have identified an opportunity to utilise the
Company's position to become a leader in the London market for
investors to gain exposure to the battery metal commodity suite,
particularly cobalt, lithium, copper and nickel.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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