Zambezi delivers 68% resource increase at Cheowa

  International copper company Zambezi Resources has added further weight to its emerging copper inventory in southern Zambia, announcing a 68% increase in the resource tonnes for its Cheowa Copper-Gold Project based on initial results from its 2007 exploration program.Zambezi said that a revised JORC-compliant Indicated Resource had been completed for the project, comprising 2.9 million tonnes at 1.05% copper and 0.22g/t gold for 31,000 tonnes of contained copper metal and 20,000 ounces of contained gold.This represents a 68% increase on the initial Inferred Resource of 1.7 million tonnes at 1.5% copper and 0.5g/t gold reported by Zambezi last year, and encompasses an extended strike length of 1.2km of mineralisation within the company’s CC2 and CC2 Extended Prospects.Zambezi’s Managing Director, Julian Ford said the updated resource represented an interim upgrade based on assay results received up to November 30, with approximately 40% of assays now received from the holes drilled so far this year. Zambezi’s 2007 drilling has been fully funded by Glencore, who are spending US$10m to earn a 51% interest in the Cheowa project.“While a large number of results are still outstanding, we have in a relatively short time increased the known strike length at CC2 by 60%, and upgraded the JORC resource from Inferred to Indicated category,” Mr Ford said. “We have defined an average true width for the Main Lode mineralisation of 4.3m and confirmed the continuity of the mineralisation at depth and along strike,” he said.The improved drill density within the CC2 mineralisation has highlighted a higher-grade (>1.5% Cu) core, which plunges shallowly to the northeast, hosted within the broader resource envelope. Zambezi has reported that this core remains open down plunge and exhibits a greater average width of 4.8m, compared with the Main Lode.“This zone will form one of the high priority target areas in the coming months as part of our broader objective of building the Cheowa resource inventory towards 10 million tonnes,” Mr Ford said. “We plan to drill intensively to 400m depth along the majority of the identified strike length through until July next year.”Glencore is earning a 51% interest in Zambezi’s Cheowa and Chongwe Copper Projects.