Following the receipt of forest permits in July, energy minerals explorer and developer Tertiary Minerals has started soil sampling at its Konkola West project, in Zambia, with about 260 soil samples due to be collected.

Proceeding their collection, the soil samples will be analysed in the field using a portable X-ray fluorescence analyser, while follow-up infill sampling will be carried out where appropriate.

“Now that we have received the necessary permits and work is once again under way, we expect to see an increase in news flow,” says Tertiary Minerals executive director Patrick Cheetham.

He adds that, following the completion of these soil sampling programmes, the company will be in a position to prioritise areas for follow-up drilling alongside the Jacks copper project where Tertiary Minerals completed extensive soil sampling at the end of the 2022 field season and a preliminary drill programme.

Konkola West lies immediately west of the Konkola-Lubambe-Musoshi copper mining licences and potentially contains downdip extensions of the laterally continuous Lower Roan ore shale horizon on the east side of the licence.

Guiding the soil sampling campaign to specific targets was Tertiary Minerals' commissioning of the interpretation of airborne geophysical data provided by geoscience data analysts KoBold Metals for the Konkola West project. This was done to identify areas in the north and north-west of the licence where the target Lower Roan formation may be shallower and less steeply dipping than on the eastern side of the licence.

The Lower Roan formation is the main host to copper mineralisation on the Zambian Copperbelt.

Following soil sampling at Konkola West, Tertiary Minerals will start the same campaign at its Mukai project.

Mukai adjoins copper miner First Quantum Minerals’ (FQM’s) Trident project licences, which include the large Sentinel copper mine and the recently opened Enterprise nickel mine.

About 310 soil samples will be collected on a 300 m by 100 m grid with additional infill sampling to test an historic soil anomaly in favourable stratigraphy along strike of FQM’s Tirosa prospect where Tertiary Minerals has drilled up to its licence boundary with Mukai.

The Mushima North project is located east of the high-grade Kalengwa copper mine and numerous targets have been identified for both iron- oxide-copper-gold mineralisation and conventional Copperbelt- style mineralisation.

The soil sampling at Mushima North is currently scheduled to follow on from that at Mukai, with about 1 150 samples to be collected on 200 m by 200 m grids in three main target areas.

In addition, Tertiary Minerals’ has also completed check analysis of soil samples collected earlier in the field season at its Lubuila project, as well as conducted an evaluation of multi-element geochemistry.

Copper results at Lubuila confirm the previously reported anomalous copper results from Area C, Tertiary Minerals reports.

However, the interpretation of multi-element analytical results suggests that the anomalous results are likely the result of lateritic enrichment rather than indicative of significant copper mineralisation.

“Our strategy remains unchanged,” says Cheetham.

“We believe that our licence portfolio in Zambia is among the most prospective held by any listed junior explorer in Zambia and our data-sharing and technical cooperation agreement with FQM on the Mukai and Mushima North projects is an additional differentiator,” he says.

“Now that we have received the necessary permits and work is once again under way, we expect to see an increase in news flow and look forward to updating shareholders with our progress,” Cheetham concludes.