Metals of Africa claims massive sulphide find
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Metals of Africa (ASX: MTA) has claimed discovery of a new high-grade lead base metal prospect, situated within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Rio Mazoe project, located in the Tete Province of Mozambique.
Metals of Africa (MoA) said it had identified a surficial occurrence (rock outcrop) of high grade lead mineralisation at Rio Mazoe in an area which is yet to be explored, but which the company considers to be prospective for Broken Hill Type-style mineralisation.
Location map of the Rio Mazoe and Changara projects showing the
recently discovered Rulio prospect together with the existing Meque and
Cocodeza prospects. Source: Company announcement
The company has recorded elevated lead grades ranging from 6.45 per cent to 79.9 per cent, with an average 44.2 of per cent lead from analysis of rock chip samples, utilising a portable XRF machine.
These rock chip samples have been sent for independent laboratory analysis.
The mineralised outcrop was discovered by the company’s geologists during a soil sampling program over an area it had identified due to its geological and structural setting.
MoA explained the mineralisation appears to be hosted on the contact of a medium grained quatzite unit and biotite-garnet-sillimanite schist, which at surface appears to be up to 1.5 metres wide.
This is largely covered by soil and MoA said detailed geological mapping followed by drilling will be required to determine the depth extent and dimensions of the mineralised occurrence.
“The discovery of outcropping high-grade lead within Proterozoic aged rocks displaying high-grade metamorphism and a complex deformation history is extremely encouraging because it ticks all of the right boxes for our search of a Broken Hill Type deposit,” Metals of Africa executive director Cherie Leeden said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“We are continuing on with a regional soil sampling program, which to date has identified some impressive new surficial base-metal anomalism such as this lead discovery and the high grade copper outcrop announced last week.
“This work is a lead up to drilling and we’re expecting to have a number of exciting targets”.
MoA currently has a team of 12 people in the field at the Rio Mazoe project and at its neighbouring Changara Joint Venture project, conducting soil sampling and geological mapping of high-priority geochemically anomalies in areas that displayed elevated lead, zinc, silver, and/or copper during previous soil sampling programs.
The aim of the soil sampling is to discover mineralisation and define drill targets.