Altus begins survey at Morocco's Agdz project

Altus Strategies announced the start of a 135 line kilometre induced polarisation (IP) and gradient array geophysical survey at its wholly-owned Agdz copper and silver project on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said Agdz lies 14 kilometres southwest of the Bou Skour copper and silver mine in the eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco.

It said the survey was designed to identify and prioritise targets for follow-up trenching and drilling, adding that Agdz hosted four “significant” copper-silver prospects covering an area of about eight square kilometres.

Those included the 2.8 kilometre-long Makarn prospect, with results up to 8% copper and 448 grams of silver per tonne; the two kilometre-long Amzwaro prospect, with results up to 4.82% copper and 189 grams of silver per tonne; the 0.15 kilometre-long Minière prospect, with results up to 13.05% copper and 12 grams of silver per tonne; and the 0.7 kilometre-long Daoud prospect, with results up to 2.71% copper and 152 grams of silver per tonne.

The survey was being undertaken by a specialist contractor, and was expected to complete in September.

“The commencement of this high resolution, IP geophysical survey is a notable milestone for our 100%-owned Agdz copper-silver project in the Eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco,” said chief executive officer Steven Poulton.

“The survey will be used to define, as well as prioritise, targets for trenching and drilling within the four key prospects discovered to date.

“These prospects have a combined mapped strike length of 5.6 kilometres, and have returned numerous encouraging rock chip results, including 8.00 % copper and 448 grams of silver per tonne.”

Poulton said Terratec Geophysical Services of Germany was undertaking the survey, which should be completed in September.

At the same time as the IP survey, the firm’s field team was undertaking further mapping and sampling across the key prospects.

“Recent rock chip sampling at the Makarn prospect has returned further positive results, including 2.86% copper and 136 grams of silver per tonne.

“Agdz is located just 14 kilometres southwest of the Bou Skour copper and silver mine, which is operated by Moroccan state mining group Managem.

“While mineralisation hosted at Bou Skour is not necessarily indicative of that at Agdz, the project is clearly exceptionally well-located in an established and highly prospective mining district.”

At 1450 BST, shares in Altus Strategies were up 6.11% at 76.4p.