Metal Tiger shares fall on Botswana test results

Strategic natural resources investing company Metal Tiger updated the market on Tuesday, over the exploration programme at its joint venture project with MOD Resources in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana.

The AIM-traded firm said preliminary metallurgical testwork results had been received for composite samples of diamond drill core taken as part of the Phase 1 Resource Drilling Programme at T3.

Testwork has been undertaken by Independent Metallurgical Operations based in Perth, Australia, with the results to be used as a key input into the Scoping Study being completed on the T3 deposit.

The results showed that high copper concentrate grades of between 33% - 60.6% Cu can be achieved at high copper recoveries ranging from 93.8% to 98.7% for all three copper sulphide domains in near-resource-grade and high-grade mineralisation within the T3 JORC Resource.

High-grade samples of more than 4% Cu gave copper recoveries up to 98.7% Cu and silver recoveries up to 97.5% Ag, to produce a high grade copper/silver concentrate up to 60.6% Cu & 1,304ppm Ag.

Near-resource-grade samples gave copper recoveries up to 96.5% Cu and silver recoveries up to 90.2% Ag for a copper/silver concentrate of up to 47.3% Cu & 1,101ppm Ag.

The tests also provided an early indication of relatively low power requirements for grinding the T3 ore types, with a coarse primary grind size and low Bond Ball Mill Work Indices.

Metal Tiger said the remainder of the preliminary metallurgical testwork programme, including optimisation tests on representative composite samples, was on schedule to deliver results to be incorporated into the T3 Scoping Study due for completion in December.

On the T3 drilling programme, five infill drill holes had been completed along a E-W traverse across the high-grade core of the T3 resource, with assay results on their way.

Two holes had been completed to test for possible depth extensions to the resource envelope, 100m NE of the current resource boundary, with assay results also being awaited.

“We are pleased to report very positive preliminary metallurgical testwork results for the copper and silver ore types constituting our T3 Mineral Resource,” said chief executive Paul Johnson.

“These results bode well for the potential economics of the T3 Deposit, which is currently being assessed as part of our on-going scoping study; as well as showing very respectable copper and silver recoveries and concentrate grades the tests show the potential for relatively low power requirements to grind the ores.

“Additional exploration work continues and we will be updating the market in the near term with a further update in this regard.”

At 1110 BST, shares in Metal Tiger were down 0.81% at 3.05p.