By: African mining market

Cobre Limited has begun new drilling operations at its Ngami Copper Project (NCP) in Botswana. The program focuses on the Cosmos target and aims to refine the company’s understanding of the project’s copper potential.

Ngami currently hosts 11.5 million tons of mineral resources grading 0.52% copper, or roughly 60,300 tons of contained copper, based solely on the Comet deposit, discovered earlier this year. Cosmos lies only eight kilometers from Comet and has shown anomalous copper and silver mineralisation, according to Cobre.

Cobre plans to conduct two diamond drill holes at Cosmos to evaluate the extent and grade of mineralization. The company said results from this campaign will guide additional exploration work across the Ngami license area.

“We are delighted to commence this drilling. Cosmos is an exciting target that could host higher-grade copper-silver mineralization suitable for conventional mining, while also enhancing our in-situ copper recovery resource at NCP,” said Adam Wooldridge, Chief Executive Officer of Cobre.

By targeting an area close to the existing Comet deposit, Cobre aims to determine whether Cosmos can contribute to a resource expansion at Ngami. The company said confirmation of higher-grade zones could significantly improve project economics. However, the outcome will depend on exploration results from this new campaign.

Botswana has become an emerging hub for copper exploration in Southern Africa, benefiting from rising global demand for the metal used in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and power infrastructure.

Ngami is one of several copper projects Cobre operates in Botswana. The company also controls the Kitlanya East and West projects, which have drawn interest from mining major BHP earlier this year.