Mukai Copper Project

Mukai Copper Project, 27066-HQ-LEL

The Mukai Copper Project covers 55.4 sq. km. and is located 125km west of Solwezi in the north-western Province of Zambia. It is currently being transferred to Tertiary Group company Copernicus Minerals plc (“Copernicus”).

Located Near Large Mines and Major Exploration Projects

The licence is directly adjacent to First Quantum Minerals’ (“FQM”) Trident Project, which includes the recently opened 35 million tonne Enterprise Nickel Mine and the 894 million tonne Sentinel (Kalumbila) Copper Mine, located 8km south and 18km southeast of the licence, respectively. 

FQM has invested US$2.1 billion in the Sentinel Copper Mine where the plant has the capacity to treat 55 million tonnes of ore per annum.

Enterprise is a sediment-hosted nickel-sulphide deposit with a total measured and indicated resource of 40 million tonnes of ore containing 431,000 tonnes of nickel, from which FQM envisages processing some 4 million tonnes of nickel ore per year, making Enterprise the largest nickel mine in Africa.

The Mukai Project is also located just to the west of Arc Minerals’ project area on the opposite flank of the Kabompo Dome, where Anglo American can earn a 70% interest from Arc Minerals through expenditure of US$88.5 million, including US$14.5 in cash payments.

Joint Venture with First Quantum Minerals (“FQM”)

Copernicus has signed a binding letter of agreement (“BLA”) giving FQM the right to earn up to an 80% joint venture interest in the Mukai Project on the following terms:

• The BLA grants First Quantum an initial exploration due diligence period of 24 months during which First Quantum is committed to fund a minimum US$1.5 million of exploration expenditure, including US$0.5 million in Year 1 (Phase 1).

• First Quantum may then enter into an earn-in and joint venture agreements to earn:

• an initial 51% joint venture interest in the Mukai Exploration Licence (“the Licence”) by demonstrating a Mineral Resource containing at least 80,000 tonnes of contained copper metal within a further 24 months (Phase 2); and

• a further 29% joint venture interest (total 80%) by completing a Mining Study and delivering a Notice of Intent to Mine within a third 24-month period (Phase 3).

• First Quantum must continue sole funding the project until receipt of regulatory and governmental permits for the commencement of construction of a mining project. At that point, Copernicus may either participate at a 20% contributing equity level or dilute down towards a minimum of 10% at which point the participating interest automatically converts to a 1.5% Net Smelter Return Royalty (NSR).

Should First Quantum continue through all phases of the project, they will make progressive payments to Copernicus totalling up to US$2 million over the three 24-month phases of the BLA and subsequent agreements.

The BLA is subject to various conditions precedent including renewal and transfer of the licences from Mwashia Resources Limited to Copernicus which is currently in progress (see news release dated 6 June 2024).

Tertiary’s Exploration Programme

In 2023, Tertiary completed an initial soil sampling programme that has defined a substantial high-grade copper-in-soil anomaly which stretches to our property boundary and into FQM’s adjacent property, where FQM have drilled 23 meters at 0.6% copper and 11 meters at 0.15% copper at the Tirosa Copper Prospect. The soil anomaly at Tirosa is lower-grade than that seen at Mukai.

A total of 526 soil samples were collected on a 300m x 100m grid infilled up to 100m x 50m and analysed in the field using a portable XRF instrument (“pXRF”). A large high-grade copper-in-soil anomaly is defined with values in excess of a 160ppm copper over an area of approximately 1,300m by 400m with a peak soil value of 1,660ppm copper (0.16%) and soil values averaging 252ppm (average of 63 samples).

This high-grade anomaly is part of broader copper-in-soil anomaly defined by 162 samples containing greater than 80ppm copper and averaging 173ppm copper over an area of approximately 1,800m by 800m.

Soil anomalies from past producing mines on the Copperbelt typically have thresholds in the range 50 to 150ppm copper, averaging 80ppm copper and peak values in the range 100-450ppm copper and averaging 210ppm copper.