By: African mining market

Critical Mineral Resources PLC revealed to investors plans for the Agadir Melloul sedimentary copper project in central Morocco, where it intends to kick off new drilling.

It has now expanded the project’s footprint, acquiring three additional permits, which, along with the original project boundary, means the company now sees it has “a dominant position in the Agadir Melloul district.”

“It is extremely pleasing to announce details of this game changing transaction, which moves CMR from rock-kicking explorer to project developer with an awesome asset,” said chief executive Charlie Long.

“It has taken two years and a huge amount of work since we first visited Agadir Melloul to get to this point. And despite having visited many excellent projects, some of which we optioned and explored, Agadir Melloul has always been our priority target.”

The exploration company is earning into a 60% interest in the project, where more than fifty drill pads have been prepared for the upcoming drill campaign.

CMR has an initial exploration target of ‘150,000 to 200,000’ tonnes of contained copper, at about 1.2% copper equivalent. And, metallurgical test data points to recoveries of 80% copper and 61% silver with a 26% copper concentrate, it noted.

“Together with our strategic investor, we believe the existing sampling data, derived mostly from trenching, underpins the initial mine project of a 750 to 1,000 tonnes per day flotation plant, and significantly derisks our investment,” Long added.

“While the potential for a much larger discovery, which we are calling the strategic resource strategy, provides for a very exciting and potentially very high return investment case for both current and future shareholders.”

CMR promises assay results will be quick to follow once drilling begins, and it expects that newsflow be ‘maintained in the months and years to come’.