Mitrovica Drone Magnetic Survey Completed

RNS Number : 8534D

Beowulf Mining PLC

02 November 2020

 

2 November 2020

Beowulf Mining plc

("Beowulf" or the "Company")

Mitrovica Drone Magnetic Survey Completed and Wolf Mountain Update

Beowulf (AIM: BEM; Spotlight: BEO), the mineral exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the completion of a drone magnetic survey ("Survey") over Vardar Mineral's  ("Vardar") Mitrovica licences in northern Kosovo. The drone system has now moved to the Viti licences in south eastern Kosovo and is being operated by Vardar's local Kosovar survey team.

The Survey was flown using a semi-automated drone system developed by Vardar and technical partners.  It is believed that this is the first time a drone system using automated 3D terrain following has been used in mountainous terrain..

High quality high-resolution magnetics, combined with IP and resistivity data, is being used as a remote mapping tool to provide information on underlying geology, alteration and structures which may control mineralisation.  Analysis and interpretation of the data will determine targets for drilling in 2021.

Wolf Mountain

Further to the Wolf Mountain announcement on 23 October 2020, the Company now provides a slide which shows that:

· Exceptionally high IP chargeability anomalies occur at the expected stratigraphic position (under the volcanoclastic contact) and connect to mapped mineralised lead-zinc-silver gossans sampled at surface.

· IP anomalies follow distinct trends suggesting that they could be high-grade feeders to the laterally extensive mapped, sampled and drill tested mineralisation.

· The associated resistivity data correlates very well with the drilling to date, mapping the contact between volcanoclastics and ultramafic basement, under which Vardar expects to see mineralisation developing.

· The anomalies are yet to be drill tested.

Wolf Mountain IP-DC Summary Slide:

https://beowulfmining.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Wolf-Mountain-IPDC-summary.pdf  

Announcement: https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/beowulf_mining_plc/news/rns/story/xo3949x  

Kurt Budge, Chief Executive Officer of Beowulf, commented:

"The Vardar drone system is 'state of the art' and has been proven to be highly capable in  covering Mitrovica's extreme terrain.

"The Vardar team has done an outstanding job, completing the survey using a completely new system during a pandemic, and continues to deliver 'big company' geoscience on a junior's budget.   We are also grateful for the significant support and assistance of the Kosovo CAA, KFOR and Vardar's main technical partner Ocuair.

" It's excellent to see the picture building at Wolf Mountain, that ties in with previous work and points the way to what we hope are high-grade lead-zinc feeder structures.

"With each phase of work at Mitrovica, there is seemingly growing potential for a discovery. We are not there yet, but with targets at Wolf Mountain, Majdan Peak and Mitrovica South there is a real opportunity.

"I look forward to providing further updates on progress in Kosovo."

Survey Details:

· 845 line kilometres of production flying, with an additional 300 line kilometres of flying for take offs, data uploads, battery changes and repeats.

· All flying was across rugged ground with some blocks having 500 metre ("m") change in elevation over a distance of 800 m.

· All blocks were flown at a height above ground of 35 m, unless specific obstacles required a higher elevation.

· A line spacing of 40 m was employed to provide the necessary ultra-high resolution dataset for detailed structural, lithological and alteration mapping.

Vardar would like to thank the Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority ("CAA") and  the NATO Kosovo Force ("KFOR") for their assistance with licencing and clearance to fly.  Their efforts have contributed greatly to the success of the project.

Technical information and conclusions:

The Vardar drone system utilises a Geometric's MagArrow underslung on a Matrice 600 Pro drone. The MagArrow provides 1,000 Hz sampling of magnetic data with onboard GPS and INS measurements. Survey flight is semi-automated, insofar as the drone pilot takes off and lands the drone and manages mid-flight data uploads with 3D flight following being managed by the control software.

Initially the drone was flown at 7 metres per second ("m/s") to maintain stability of the magnetic sensor system, which is suspended below the drone. This speed was increased to 12 m/s as a result of experimentation with damping systems. The current system is productive until wind speed increases such that the drone is blown off course, the suspended load is no longer a limiting factor, although care must be taken in turns on exposed ridges.

The system production is currently limited by four factors:

1.  The drone can only accept 99 waypoints, which requires 2-3 data uploads per 700 m x 700 m block, which costs time and battery life;

2.  The drone's internal flight controller limits speed through waypoints thus introducing stability issues at speeds over 12 m/s;

3.  The requirement to fly 700 m x 700 m blocks (imposed by line of sight regulations) means significant time is required to find suitable take off points; and

4.  The flight control software is not yet fully optimised. Another 10-20 per cent of productive capability is thought achievable.

Despite these limitations and before further improvement, the system is capable of 120 line kilometres per day ("km/day") compared with walk mag production of 15-20 line km/day where possible.

The drone magnetic system has proved itself beyond doubt and is appropriate for small survey areas. The Vardar team has pushed the current technology to the limit of what it is capable of and believe that the next generation of drones and control software will make the technology a commonplace exploration tool, which can be operated by any field team.

Wolf Mountain Overview

The Wolf Mountain target is located in the central part of Vardar's Mitrovica licence.  It represents one of several targets, which could be mineralised satellite deposits to the world-class Stan Terg mine, which dates back to the 1930s and is estimated to have produced 34 million tonnes ("Mt") at 3.45 per cent Pb, 2.3 per cent Zn and 80 g/t Ag.

In addition to the Wolf Mountain target, potential also exists at Mitrovica for the discovery of high-level epithermal gold deposits at Majdan Peak and further base metal deposits in the southern part of the licence area.

Mineralisation at Wolf Mountain appears to be intrinsically related to the contact between Jurassic UMs and overlying O-M volcanoclastic rocks, where relatively flat-lying hydrothermal breccias are enriched in Pb, Zn and Ag. Below this contact several high-grade feeder structures have been anticipated and the results of the IP survey tend to confirm this hypothesis.

A total of 278.5 metres ("m") of trenching and 1,609m of drilling have been completed at Wolf Mountain. Drilling and trenching results have confirmed extensive lead-zinc-silver mineralisation over an area of 800m in length and 400m in width.

The highlights of these activities include:

• Trench WM-T01: 18 grammes/tonne ("g/t") Ag, 2.01 per cent Pb and 3.17 per cent Zn over 12.5m, within a longer 51m in length cross-section returning 11 g/t Ag, 1.43 per cent Pb and 1.87 per cent Zn;

• Trench WM-T02: 14 g/t Ag, 3.6 per cent Pb and 0.64 per cent Zn over 8m;

• Drillhole WM004: 8 g/t Ag, 1.27 per cent Pb and 0.91 per cent Zn over 6.6m (estimated true thickness); and

• Drillhole WM007: 16 g/t Ag, 2.69 per cent Pb and 0.4 per cent Zn over 4.3m (estimated true thickness).

The results suggest a mineralisation model analogous to the nearby Zijaca deposit, located 3 kilometres south-east of Wolf Mountain (non-JORC compliant 5.2 Mt containing 2.83 per cent Pb, 2.83 per cent Zn and 16 g/t Ag), and Crnac, (non-JORC compliant 3.5 Mt containing 8.1 per cent Pb, 3.2 per cent Zn, 120 g/t Ag) in northern Kosovo.

IP Survey

The survey was completed as a full 3D programme using a combination of conventional 2D IP-DC lines using electrode spacings of 50m and 100m with additional Iris Instruments FullWaver units positioned on adjacent lines. All the receiver electrodes were measured simultaneously for each current injection point (with up to 70 dipoles measured per current injection) which allowed for the construction of detailed 3D chargeability and resistivity volumes.

The resistivity results correlate very well with the completed drilling, mapping out the extent of the low resistivity volcanoclastic units over higher resistivity UM basement. Importantly the IP anomalies occur below this contact often straddling the lower contact and extending towards the surface where outcropping mineralised gossans have been mapped, providing  support for a mineralised source to the anomalies. The correlation of the IP anomalies with regional structural trends is supportive of these representing high-grade feeder structures.

References:

Stan Terg - Strmić Palinkaš S, Palinkaš LA, Renac C, Spangenberg JE, Lüders V, Molnar F, Maliqi G (2013) Metallogenic model of the Trepča Pb-Zn-Ag skarn deposit, Kosovo: evidence from fluid inclusions, rare earth elements, and stable isotope data. Economic Geology 108:135-162…"With current reserves of 29 Mt of ore at 3.45 per cent Pb, 2.30 per cent Zn, and 80 g/t Ag (ITT/UNMIK 2001 report), together with the past  production of approximately 34 Mt of ore, the deposit represents an important source of metals in the southeastern part of Europe."

Crnac - Resource estimate from the Mineral Deposits of Serbia - Ore deposit database… "In 1981, the Crnac mine produced 60,000 tonnes at 7 per cent Pb and 2 per cent Zn, by sub-level open stoping. Output should reach 150,000 tonnes/year by 1983. ITT/UNMIK Mission (12/2000): Past production (1967-2000): 2,060,000 tonnes at 4.3 per cent Pb, 2.2 per cent Zn and 53 g/t Ag. Resources: 1,415,000t at 8.1 per cent Pb, 3.2 per cent Zn and 120 g/t Ag."

Zijaca (or Zijaç or Zijača) - 1999 PhD thesis in Albanian translated as "Geological and Structural Setting in the Trepča Region".

Glossary:

Gossan - Gossan is intensely oxidized, weathered or decomposed rock, usually the upper and exposed part of an ore deposit or mineral vein.

Hydrothermal Alteration - also referred to as wallrock alteration, is a general term that encompasses many processes by which rock-forming minerals are altered due to reactions accompanying the flow of heated aqueous fluids along fractures and grain boundaries.

Induced Polarisation  (IP) - Variations in chargeability can be diagnostic, for example, when aiming to characterize a mineral deposit, where the chargeability of the mineralised zone is often higher than the host rock. Often an induced polarization (IP) experiment is performed with the Direct Current Resistivity (DCR) hence they are often called DC-IP survey. Both conductivity and chargeability distribution can be recovered from a DC-IP survey.

Competent Person Review

The information in this announcement has been reviewed by Mr. Chris Davies, a Competent Person ("CP"), who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Davies has conducted a desktop review of source documents and data which underpin the technical statements disclosed herein and approves the disclosure of technical information in the form and context in which it appears in this announcement, in his capacity as a CP as required under the AIM rules. Mr. Davies has visited Vardar's Mitrovica and Viti projects in Kosovo.

Mr. Davies has sufficient experience, that is relevant to the content of this announcement, to qualify as a CP as defined in the 2012 Edition of the "Australasian Code of Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves".

Mr. Davies BSc (Hons) Geology, MSc DIC Mineral Exploration, FAusIMM, is a Non-executive Director of Beowulf and is an exploration/economic geologist with more than 35 years' experience in the mining sector.

About Beowulf Mining plc

Beowulf's strategy is to build a sustainable and innovative mining company, which creates shareholder value by developing mining assets, delivering production and generating cash flow, and in so doing meets society's ongoing need for metals.

Beowulf is developing a high-quality asset base, which is diversified by geography and commodity, enabling it to simultaneously advance several projects up the mining value curve and create shareholder value.

Additionally, the Board of Directors continues to look beyond the Company for value creation opportunities.

The Company's first priority remains the award of the Exploitation Concession for Kallak North, and thereafter completing the Scoping Study.  The introduction of a strategic partner/investor who understands the value of Kallak as a high-quality asset, which could be in production within four to five years, is an ongoing consideration, but does not preclude the Company from continuing to add value to Kallak in the meantime.

Fennoscandian Resources ("Fennoscandian"), the Company's graphite business, is pursuing a strategy to develop a resource/production base of natural flake graphite that can provide 'security of supply' and enable Finland to achieve its ambition of self-sufficiency in battery manufacturing.  The Company is a recipient of Business Finland funding, which is supporting Fennoscandian to move downstream, and develop its knowledge in processing and manufacturing value-added graphite products.

The Company owns 46.1 per cent of Vardar, a UK registered exploration company with a focus on the metal endowed Balkan region.  Vardar holds exploration licences for the Mitrovica and Viti projects in Kosovo.  Both projects are located within the Tethyan Belt, a major orogenic metallogenic province for gold and base metals which extends from the Alps (Carpathians/Balkans) to Turkey, Iran and Indochina, and contains several world class discoveries.  The Tethyan Belt of south-east Europe can be regarded as Europe's chief copper-gold (lead-zinc-silver) province.

Enquiries:

Beowulf Mining plc
Kurt Budge, Chief Executive Officer		Tel: [phone]
SP Angel (Nominated Adviser & Broker)
Ewan Leggat / Soltan Tagiev		Tel: [phone]
Blytheweigh
Tim Blythe / Megan Ray		Tel: [phone]

Cautionary Statement

Statements and assumptions made in this document with respect to the Company's current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs, and other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements about the future performance of Beowulf. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those using words such as "may", "might", "seeks", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "believes", "projects", "plans", strategy", "forecast" and similar expressions. These statements reflect management's expectations and assumptions in light of currently available information. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to , (i) changes in the economic, regulatory and political environments in the countries where Beowulf operates; (ii) changes relating to the geological information available in respect of the various projects undertaken; (iii) Beowulf's continued ability to secure enough financing to carry on its operations as a going concern; (iv) the success of its potential joint ventures and alliances, if any; (v) metal prices, particularly as regards iron ore. In the light of the many risks and uncertainties surrounding any mineral project at an early stage of its development, the actual results could differ materially from those presented and forecast in this document. Beowulf assumes no unconditional obligation to immediately update any such statements and/or forecasts.

 

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