AI Review Confirms Copper Mineralisation

Botswana Minerals PLC

30 June 2026

 

30 June 2026

Botswana Minerals plc

("Botswana Minerals" or the "Company")

AI Review Confirms Copper Mineralisation in

Historical Drill Core on Botswana Licences

Highlights

-   Further AI interpretation of historical drilling data has confirmed the Company's copper geological model on its licences, identifying chalcopyrite (a primary copper sulphide) in core from holes originally drilled in the search for uranium and diamonds. This is a material step forward in our exploration programme.

-   AI identified and connected the copper evidence by analysing more than a gigabyte of legacy reports, some over fifty years old, that had never been integrated into a modern copper model, demonstrating the power of AI to unlock value from vast historical datasets.

-   The data, including copper and nickel sulphides noted in historic boreholes, points towards a concealed mineralised corridor beneath shallow Kalahari cover within the licences.

-   Fieldwork will now be expedited on the northern licenses, while analysis continues on the southern licences.

Summary

Botswana Minerals plc, the AIM- and Botswana Stock Exchange-listed copper and diamond exploration company, announces that an AI-assisted review of historical exploration data has confirmed its copper geological model on the Company's licences, identifying chalcopyrite, a primary copper sulphide, in historical drill core from holes originally drilled in the search for uranium and diamonds. The Company regards this as a material step forward in the exploration of its copper interests.

Alongside the primary chalcopyrite, the historical records show altered copper minerals, including malachite and chrysocolla. Together, these directly confirm the AI-generated target corridors and strengthen the model for concealed copper and base metal mineralisation beneath Kalahari cover.

The significance of AI in this application is its ability to recover and connect this evidence from more than a gigabyte of records spanning over fifty years and several separate exploration campaigns within a matter of days, work that would be impractical to do manually, turning overlooked legacy data into a focused field programme.

John Teeling, Chairman of Botswana Minerals, commented:

"This is exactly how AI should work in mineral exploration. The initial AI analysis identified prospective copper corridors; the review of historical core and logs then provided direct mineral evidence, in the form of chalcopyrite, that confirms the model."

"The copper was not sitting in one neat modern database. It was dispersed across decades of reports, more than a gigabyte of them, from both uranium and diamond explorers. AI helped us find, connect and understand that evidence in its proper geological context, which simply would not have been practical to do by hand."

"We now have primary copper mineralisation, altered copper minerals and a confirmed geological model, a material step forward for the Company. Our next step is to accelerate the northern licence work, get into the field, re-log and re-scan available core, and continue building out the opportunity across the southern licences."

Next steps, which are fully funded:

•    Fieldwork in the northern licences will be accelerated by prioritising and ranking the targets, enabling rapid mobilisation on the highest‑value prospects;

•    undertake field checks over the highest-priority copper, zinc, lead and nickel corridors, including mapping, sampling and validation of historical drill locations;

•    re-log and scan available historical drill core using handheld XRF as a rapid screening tool; and

•    integrate field, XRF, geochemical and geophysical results to refine targets for drilling.

Further announcements will be made in due course.

Background Information

The Company's northern Botswana licences have a long exploration history dating back to the 1970s, with work by Rio Tinto, Falconbridge, Mount Burgess, Tsodilo/Gcwihaba, Kavango Minerals and others. This included both uranium and diamond exploration. The diamond drilling is valuable because it penetrated the Kalahari cover and recorded the basement rocks beneath it.

Using Planetary AI's Xplore platform, which, among its many capabilities, can read historical exploration records in their geological context, the Company analysed an additional one gigabyte of reports, some more than fifty years old. Although copper evidence had been recorded historically, it was dispersed across separate campaigns and had not previously been integrated into a modern copper target model.

Historical drilling carried out in search of uranium and diamonds intersected copper sulphides, including chalcopyrite, as well as nickel-bearing minerals in favourable host rocks. Altered copper minerals such as malachite and chrysocolla also occur beneath shallow Kalahari cover. These observations directly confirm the initial AI-defined target corridors and the Company's copper and base metal exploration models.

Parts of the ground also show strong geological continuity with Namibia's Matchless Belt, a corridor hosting several copper-zinc deposits. The Company will now expedite fieldwork on its northern licences, including re-logging and handheld XRF scanning of available historical core, while continuing analysis across its southern licences.

References to other deposits and mineralised belts are provided for geological context only, to illustrate the styles of mineralisation being targeted; no inference is drawn or implied as to the scale of any mineralisation that may be present on the Company's licences.

Ends

Enquiries

Botswana Minerals PLC
John Teeling, Chairman	[phone]
James Campbell, Managing Director	[phone]
Jim Finn, Director	[phone]

Nominated & Financial Adviser Strand Hanson Limited	[phone]
Ritchie Balmer
Rory Murphy
Edward Foulkes

Joint Broker First Equity Limited	[phone]
Jason Robertson

Joint Broker VSA Capital Limited	[phone]
Andrew Monk
Andrew Raca

Public Relations BlytheRay	[phone]
Megan Ray
Said Izagaren

Teneo	[phone]
Luke Hogg
Ciara McNamee
Molly Mooney

Competent Person Statement

This release has been approved by James Campbell, Managing Director of Botswana Minerals plc, a qualified geologist (Pr.Sci.Nat), a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Metals and Mining (UK) and with over 40 years' experience in the mineral exploration sector.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended.

 

END