TIDMALS
RNS Number : 2733X
Altus Strategies PLC
22 November 2017
Altus Strategies Plc / Index: AIM / EPIC: ALS / Sector:
Mining
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES NOR FOR
DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
22 November 2017
Altus Strategies Plc
("Altus" or the "Company")
Termination of MoA with JOGMEC on Tigray-Afar Copper Project,
Northern Ethiopia
Altus Strategies Plc ("Altus" or the "Company") announces that
the Memorandum of Agreement ("MoA") made between Altau Resources
Limited ("Altau"), Aluvance plc (now Aluvance Limited)
("Aluvance"), Altus Strategies Limited (now Altus Exploration and
Management Limited) ("Altus Strategies") and Japan Oil, Gas and
Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") on 16 September 2014 in
respect of the Company's 322km(2) Tigray-Afar ("Tigray-Afar")
licence and 144km(2) Negash licence ("Negash") (together the
"Project") in northern Ethiopia will end on 19 December 2017.
Exploration at the Project as part of the MoA has defined four
distinct copper-silver prospects to date at Tigray-Afar with grades
of up to 22 % Cu and 102 g/t Ag from surface sampling. Rock chip
channel results have included 28m at 0.75% Cu, 31m at 0.50% Cu, 4m
at 3.22% Cu & 6m at 1.46% Cu. Drilling at Tigray-Afar has
returned grades of up to 1.53% Cu over 15.5m, 1.22% Cu over 11.9m
and 0.70% Cu over 28.15m.
Steven Poulton, Chief Executive, commented:
"We have been delighted to work alongside JOGMEC as our partner
on the Tigray-Afar project over the last three years and it is
unfortunate that the project does not meet their criteria at this
time. I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere
gratitude to JOGMEC for the excellent working relationship we have
enjoyed with them since 2014. We very much look forward to the
opportunity to work with them in the future. In the meantime the
work completed to date at Tigray-Afar under the MoA has identified
a significant copper-silver-gold bearing system. Our team are
presently reviewing and compiling the technical data in order to
provide an exploration update for shareholders in due course".
JOGMEC MoA
In September 2014 Altus Strategies (a 100% owned subsidiary of
the Company) announced that an MoA had been signed with JOGMEC,
whereby JOGMEC was granted the option to acquire an initial 51%
interest in the Project by funding US$2.5M in expenditures prior to
31 March 2016. Altau could then co-fund its interest at 49% or
allow JOGMEC to increase its ownership in the Project to 70% by
expending a further US$7.0M by 31 March 2019. To date three
drilling programmes have been successfully completed under the MoA
and JOGMEC have funded in excess of US$3.0M since 2014. However,
JOGMEC have advised the Company that the Project does not currently
fit their investment criteria and as such they do not intend to
proceed to vest their interest in a joint venture company and will
withdraw from the MoA. On withdrawal JOGMEC absolutely forfeits all
of its interest in the MoA and the Project.
Following the termination of the MoA the Company retains 100%
ownership of and title to the Project and data generated from the
MoA, which includes the Agamat gold prospect that has not formed
part of the MoA work programmes.
The following figures have been prepared and relate to the
disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of
this announcement on the Company's website
(www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following the link
below:
http://altus-strategies.com/site/assets/files/4277/termination_of_moa_with_jogmec_on_tigray-afar_copper_project-_northern_ethiopia.pdf:
- Location of the Company's projects in Northern Ethiopia is shown in Figure 1
- Malachite mineralisation with epidote alteration at Agamat prospect is shown in Figure 2
Figure 1. Location of the Company's projects in Northern
Ethiopia
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/2733X_-2017-11-22.pdf
Figure 2. Malachite mineralisation with epidote alteration,
Agamat prospect
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/2733X_1-2017-11-22.pdf
Project Location
The Tigray-Afar and Negash licences are located along the border
of the Tigray and Afar provinces in northern Ethiopia, 45km north
of the regional centre of Mekele, 65km north of Africa's largest
wind energy project at Ashegoda and 580 km north of the capital
Addis Ababa. Mekele has a population of 65,000 and strong
communication links, being served by a daily flight to and from
Addis Ababa, a main road which runs from Addis Ababa to Asmara in
Eritrea and is only 50km from the planned railway connection to
Djibouti.
Geological Setting
The Project is situated within prospective Proterozoic
volcano-sedimentary terrains that form part of the Arabian Nubian
Shield. These rocks host a number of notable mineral deposits in
the region, including the Bisha and Asmara VMS copper-gold deposits
in Eritrea, approximately 250km north of the Project as well as the
Sukari gold deposit in Egypt and the Jabal Sayid copper-gold
project in Saudi Arabia.
About the Tigray-Afar Project
The Project area was selected by the Company on the basis of the
presence of a major regional shear zone, coincident with locations
of anomalous copper occurrences defined by Ethiopian Geological
Survey in the 1980s. The project hosts the 'Italian Pit', an 80m
long and up to 15m wide historical open pit copper mine, believed
to have been worked by the Italians during the 1930s.
Four distinct copper-silver prospects have been defined to date
at the Project with grades of up to 22 % Cu and 102 g/t Ag from
surface sampling. Rock chip channel results have include 28m at
0.75% Cu, 31m at 0.50% Cu, 4m at 3.22% Cu & 6m at 1.46% Cu.
Drilling at Tigray-Afar has returned grades of up to 1.53% Cu over
15.5m and 1.22% Cu over 11.9m. At least two stacked shallow dipping
manto-style reefs of mineralised metavolcanics, with a cumulative
width of at least 40m have been discovered a the Slater prospect.
Mineralisation is associated with intense silicification and
epidotisation and is accompanied by strong foliation textures and
brecciation, in common with typical manto-style ore bodies in South
America.
The Agamat Cu-Ag-Au prospect located in the north of the Project
area and hosts copper mineralisation coincident with axial planar
shearing, along fold hinges and which appears to show a general
association with specular haematite, pyrite and/or quartz veining
proximal to the fold hinges. Surface grades of up to 8.7% Cu, 99
g/t Ag and 13.5 g/t Au have been returned. Diamond drilling at the
prospect has returned a best intersect to date of 0.70% Cu over
28.15m.
Qualified Person
The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has
been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus.
A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he
also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines
(Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the
Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a Fellow of the
Geological Society of London. He has over 18 years of experience in
mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules
and under National Instrument 43-101.
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this
announcement.
For further information you are invited to visit the Company's
website www.altus-strategies.com or contact:
Altus Strategies Plc Tel: +44 (0)
Steven Poulton, Chief 1235 511 767
Executive E: info@altus-strategies.com
Matthew Grainger, Executive
Director
Greg Owen, VP Corporate
Development
SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Tel: +44 (0)
Ewan Leggat / Richard 20 3470 0470
Morrison / Soltan Tagiev
SP Angel (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)
Elizabeth Johnson / Richard 20 3470 0471
Parlons
Beaufort Securities (Joint Tel: +44 (0)
Broker) 20 7382 8300
Jon Bellis
Blytheweigh (Financial Tel: +44 (0)
PR) 20 7138 3204
Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall
/ Nick Elwes
Notes to editors:
About Altus Strategies Plc
Altus is a diversified and Africa focused project generator in
the natural resource sector. Through our subsidiaries we discover
new projects and attract third party capital to fund their growth,
development and ultimately exit optionality. This strategy enables
Altus to remain focused on the acquisition of new opportunities to
be fed into the project generation cycle and aims to minimise
shareholder dilution. Our business model is designed to create a
growing portfolio of well managed and high growth potential
projects which is diversified by commodity and by country. We aim
to position our shareholders at the vanguard of value creation, but
with significantly reduced risks traditionally associated with
investments in the mineral exploration sector.
The following is a summary of the Company's key projects:
Cameroon - Gold
The Company holds the 189km(2) Laboum gold exploration licence
in northern Cameroon through its 99% owned subsidiary Auramin Ltd.
At Laboum an approximately 18km and 5km wide long gold-bearing
shear zone has been discovered. In addition close to 1km of quartz
veins have been discovered with exposed widths of between 1m and
40m. High resolution ground geophysics and a concurrent gold in
soil survey are defining priority targets for a systematic
trenching programme. The Laboum licence hosts a number of artisanal
gold mining sites and grab samples have returned grades up to 24.50
g/t Au from quartz veins and 6.86 g/t Au from the sheared
metasedimentary rocks respectively.
Morocco - Copper
The Company holds the 60km(2) Agdz copper-silver exploration
licence in central Morocco through its 100% owned subsidiary
Aterian Resources Ltd. Five prospects have been defined to date,
the best of which retuned grades up to 8% Cu, 448 g/t Ag and 3.74
g/t Au. The project is located close to a number of operating
mines, notably the recently commissioned Bouskour Cu-Ag mine
located 14km NE of Agdz.
Ethiopia - Copper
The Company holds the 322km(2) Tigray-Afar and Negash
copper-silver exploration in northern Ethiopia through its 100%
owned subsidiary Altau Resources Ltd and 97.3% owned subsidiary
Aluvance Ltd respectively.. Four distinct prospects have been
identified to date, returning grades of up to 22 % Cu and 102 g/t
Ag from surface sampling. Channel results have include 28m at 0.75%
Cu, 31m at 0.50% Cu, 4m at 3.22% Cu & 6m at 1.46% Cu and
drilling has returned grades of up to 1.14% Cu and 10.2 g/t Ag over
widths up to 15.5m. The Company also holds the 412km(2) Daro
exploration licence, also located in northern Ethiopia, which
targets VMS style deposits.
Cameroon - Bauxite
The Company holds the 601km(2) Birsok & Mandoum bauxite
exploration licences in central Cameroon through its 97.3% owned
subsidiary Aluvance Ltd. The Birsok & Mandoum licences are
subject to a joint venture agreement with ASX-listed Canyon
Resources Ltd. The project is within 10km of an operating rail line
to the port of Douala on the Atlantic Ocean.
Liberia - Gold
The Company holds the 639.6km(2) Bella Yella and 732km(2) Zolowo
gold exploration licences in north western Liberia through its 99%
owned subsidiary Auramin Ltd. Both licences target targeting
Archaean greenstone-hosted gold deposits. At Bella Yella a 7.5km
NE-SW striking gold in soil anomaly has been defined. A number of
artisanal gold workings have been discovered, from which rock chip
assay results have returned grades up to 233 g/t Au. Zolowo hosts a
33km long greenstone belt, a number of drainages from which host
significant artisanal alluvial workings.
Cameroon - Iron Ore
The Company holds the 400km(2) Bikoula & Ndjele iron ore
exploration licences in southern Cameroon through its 97.3% owned
subsidiary Aluvance Ltd. The project hosts an independent (JORC
2012 compliant), inferred mineral resource estimate comprising 46Mt
@ 44% Fe completed by Coffey Mining South Africa (Pty) Ltd in a
report entitled "Mineral Resource Estimation and Classification of
the Bikoula Iron Ore Project in Cameroon". The resource estimate is
from less than 25% of the 17km long target as identified from
airborne geophysics.
Morocco - Other
The Company holds 226km(2) across five exploration licence
throughout Morocco through its 100% owned subsidiary Aterian
Resources Ltd. The licences areas are prospective for zinc, lead,
copper, tin, tungsten and gold. Grades from these licences include
8.15% Pb, 4.48% Zn, 9.18% Cu and 9.61 g/t Au.
Glossary of Terms
The following is a glossary of technical terms:
"Archaean" means an early part of geological time dating from
<4,000 to 2,500 million years ago
"Artisanal" means local people conducting mining, often with
rudimentary equipment
"Au" means gold
"Assay" or "Assay results" means the analysis of minerals, rocks
and mine products to determine and quantify their constituent
parts
"Ag" means silver
"Cu" means copper
"Fe" means iron
"Pb" mean lead
"g/t" means grams per tonne
"Grade(s)" means the quantity of ore or metal in a specified
quantity of rock
"m" means metres
"Ma" means million years ago
"Moz" means millions of ounces
"Outcrop" means a visible exposure of rock that is in-situ and
has no covering of soil or vegetation
"Shear zone" means a zone in which rocks have been deformed by
lateral movement along parallel planes
"Quartz Vein" means a fracture which has been filled by quartz
and other minerals which have crystallised from mineralised
fluids
"Zn" means zinc
**ENDS**
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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