TSX-V-listed exploration company Midnight Sun has started drilling at its Solwezi licences in Zambia. Drill meterage has been allocated to four exploration targets, which include the known Mitu and Dumbwa prospects and two new targets at North 22 zone and Crunch zone.

Zambian-owned company ATL Drilling Services has been contracted to perform the diamond drilling programme, with Midnight Sun having committed to up to 4 500 m of drilling over up to 29 drill holes for the 2022 field season.

The drill has arrived on site and has been set up at Mitu. The drill programme was designed based on a review and re-interpretation of data generated by mining and metals company Rio Tinto Mining & Exploration under the terms of a now terminated earn-in and joint venture agreement.

Dr Simon Dorling, a specialist in sedimentary-hosted copper deposits, conducted the review, which included assessing the targeting rationale for the exploration work completed, evaluating the effectiveness of the work completed on the proposed targeting concepts, and commenting on the remaining prospectivity of the Solwezi licences. The review culminated in a set of drill targets that include both a new interpretation at known targets as well as newly defined targets.

“Our Solwezi licences are located in an area of world-class copper mines and have so far shown many of the hallmarks of such deposits. We are of the view that this revised technical approach will provide an opportunity to catapult the project to a new level,” stated Midnight Sun president and CEO Al Fabbro in a release last month.

Known Prospects

At Mitu, the interpretation of high-resolution airborne magnetics shows multiple structures cross cutting the Solwezi Dome margin and the overlying Copperbelt sediment succession. The displacement occurs primarily along north-east-trending structures which are key to mineralisation at the nearby Kansanshi mine, owned by miner First Quantum Minerals.

A reassessment of drill cores confirms a structural overprint on stratiform mineralisation and provides justification to revisit existing prospects. Five diamond drill holes have been planned for the Mitu area, targeting north-east-trending structures.

The Dumbwa prospect is geologically located over basement rock with mineralisation which resembles that of gold and copper mining company Barrick Gold’s Lumwana mine, about 60 km west of Solwezi.

New magnetic data shows that the southern area of the Dumbwa anomaly is underlain by a major lineament and two east-west drill hole traverses totalling nine holes have been planned to target the source of the surface anomaly.

The North 22 zone and Crunch zone targets are concepts derived from a combination of structural interpretation, subtle geochemical anomalism and new insights into the genesis of mineralisation in the Zambian-Congo Copperbelt.

The primary objective of this drilling is to assess the structural control on mineralisation in the area.