Mumbwa
Overview
The Mumbwa copper-gold project is located in west central Zambia. The Mumbwa licence (PL LS374) area covers an area of approximately 5,200 km2 with an exploration strategy that is modeled around an iron oxide copper-gold ('IOCG') style deposit similar to Olympic Dam in South Australia and Ernest Henry in Queensland.
AIM Resources entered into a joint venture agreement with BHP Billiton (BHPB) in late 2004 enabling AIM to earn up to 70% interest in the project over a 4 year period. AIM is on track in terms of its budgetary commitments and onsite activity to fulfill the joint venture obligations.
An exploration programme was designed to drill test 11 anomalies, constituting 5,700m of drilling, defined by in-depth 3D geophysical interpretation of FalconTM data, using BHPB's propriety SolidEarthTM software, used to identify coincident geophysical anomalies. A cored drilling programme conducted in 2006/2007, drilled 8 holes totaling 4,105.17m. Three untested anomalies are currently being reviewed, as slow drilling rates precluded completion of these holes before the commencement of the annual seasonal rainfall.
AIM Resources announced a significant copper intersection in drill hole S36-001, yielding 655mat 0.46% Cu including:
• 317m @ 0.79% Cu,
• 18m @ 0.20g/t Au,
• 42m @ 2.01% Cu, including
• 4m @ 5.56% Cu.
In addition, a limited soil geochemical survey was conducted over seven of the drilled anomalies to establish if distinct, co-incident geochemical signatures exists for comparison between drill hole samples and known mineralisation. A total of 356 samples were collected along 1 kilometre long lines, with samples collected at 50m intervals and analysed for a suite of 17 elements including copper, gold and uranium.
An elevated gold expression was identified over the drill hole for S36-001, and mid tenor copper values were identified over S3-001 and S4-001. Over the S36 anomaly, gold values ranging from 12 ppb to 63 ppb were received, whilst other sites typically returned gold values less than 13 ppb, and mostly under 10 ppb. Anomalies S3 and S4 returned copper values of a higher order tenor than other sites, however it appears to be influenced by topography. Further examination is warranted over S3 and S4 anomalies as the distribution of copper and other elements is probably due to higher element concentrations found closer to bedrock, and the influence of thicker, transported overburden material in low lying areas has a greater effect on sample dilution.
AIM Resources has planned the next phase of drilling, which commenced in January 2008. It is proposing to drill 13 cored holes totalling 9,100 metres.