Caledonia Mining says new high-grade orebody found at its Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe

By Agencies

Zimbabwe-focused Caledonia Mining has reported further encouraging high-grade results from the ongoing resource expansion drill programme at its 64%-owned Blanket mine.

Results from 6 976 m of underground drilling from January 2024 to the end of April indicate that the existing Blanket and Eroica orebodies at the mine have grades and widths which are generally better than expected, while the Lima orebody is shown to continue below 22 level (750 m).

“We have invested heavily in Blanket mine over the last seven years to increase production capacity, resulting in mine infrastructure that can sustain production beyond the current production horizon,” said CEO Mark Learmonth.

“Drilling is currently focussed on the Blanket and Eroica orebodies, where crosscuts have been developed to allow optimal access to drill the deeper zones of the steeply-dipping orebodies.

“These results are extremely promising, and we look forward to the next phase of drilling and updating the market accordingly.”

A new potential orebody has been intersected in the Blanket orebody area of the mine, with the company highlighting “impressive” grades and widths.

The programme is aimed at evaluating the continuity of the mineralised zones on the Blanket, Eroica and Lima orebodies, which comprise three of the main orebodies at the mine.

It also aims to increase the confidence levels of the existing mineral resource and to grow the mineral resource estimate (MRE) below the 34 level of the mine (1 110 m).

“Our ongoing drilling campaign continues to demonstrate encouraging results, further improving our confidence in the Blanket mine mineral resource and pointing to additional future mineral resource growth.

“The grades and widths we are seeing from this drilling campaign are as good as and, in some cases, considerably better than, results from previous drilling campaigns, which is highly encouraging,” Learmonth said.

“We anticipate that the positive grades and widths will result in an increased overall MRE, which in due course should result in the extension of the existing life-of-mine.”