Savannah Resources, the diversified mining group focused on exploration and development of mineral sands in Mozambique and copper-gold projects in Oman, announced yesterday the remaining results from its latest drill programme on Blocks 4 and 5 in Oman. Savannah owns a 65% shareholding in Al Fairuz Mining, the owner of the Block 5 licence and is earning a 65% shareholding in Al Thuraya LLC, the owner of Block 4, both are prospective for copper and gold. In addition, the Company has completed a preliminary compilation of data on the Lasail deposit in Block 4, the largest historical mine in Oman, which highlighted high-grade open-pit and underground copper potential. A total of 16 drill holes totalling 1,766.85m were completed on 30 December 2015, targeting both exploration and resource expansion in Blocks 4 and 5. Of the remaining seven holes, highlights include 16m grading 0.85% Cu from 105m in borehole 15B5DD006 targeting the Mahab 4 prospect in Block 5 and a 9m intersection grading 0.5% Cu and 2g/t Au from 4m in drill hole 15B4RC009 targeting the Gaddamah prospect in Block 4. Based on the high-grade intersections to date Savannah is developing a strategy to achieve high-grade, low-cost copper (and potentially gold) concentration production by end of 2017.
Beaufort Securities view on Savannah Resources: We are encouraged with the results from the latest round of drilling returning a number of high-grade intersections. Additional copper and gold mineralisation has been confirmed in Block 4 and the high-grade copper envelope identified in Block 5 (Mahab 4 deposit) is likely to add to the existing resource of 1.5Mt grading 2.1% Cu. We look forward to a compilation of the resource estimate in Block 4 for the past producing Aarja, Bayda and Lasail mines as well as a feasibility study on the combined mine development of the deposits within Blocks 4 and 5. In the meantime, we maintain a Speculative Buy rating on the stock.
Beaufort Securities acts as a corporate broker to Savannah Resources plc
