Exploration
Though Equinox has been focusing on the commissioning and ramping up of production at the Lumwana Mine, it has maintained an exploration program in Zambia primarily directed towards the 1,355 km2 LML-49 that surrounds the Lumwana mine. This program is focused on targets regarded as prospective for additional mineralization to feed the Lumwana mill.
Exploration work continued to focus on evaluating and ranking targets at Lumwana:
- At Chimiwungo, an induced polarization (IP) survey identified significant chargeability anomalies over the down dip portion of Chimiwungo East. This area has not been drill tested by the Company in the past and was only poorly tested with historical drilling in the 1960s. This is interpreted to indicate a highly prospective plunging shoot of sulphidic mineralization which will be drill tested in 2010, potentially providing an extension to the Chimiwungo Deposit.
- On the west side of the Mwombezhi Dome, anomalous copper geochemistry and geophysics has defined the Odile Prospect, west of Malundwe. Further geophysics and drilling is planned for this target in 2010.
- IP surveying confirmed the presence of plunging shoots of chargeable material, possibly sulphides, at Lubwe West, northeast of Chimiwungo. Ground spectrometer work targeting uranium was also completed at Lubwe. Further target definition at this target may justify drilling.
Equinox has been granted the 2,200km2 Mufapanda licence, an iron oxide-copper-gold target some 200 km west-north-west of Lusaka. A reconnaissance field visit identified an outcropping zone over 8 km of hematite-magnetite breccias above a magnetically active granitoid. Following anomalous assay samples from this zone the Company plans to undertake an airborne magnetic and radiometric survey of 10,820 line kilometres to provide the foundation for future exploration activities in 2010.
The Company holds additional regional exploration tenements and applications elsewhere in Zambia that have been affected by the introduction of new legislation in 2008 which governs the title and commitments on prospecting licenses. The Company is working closely with the GRZ to resolve the inconsistencies and ambiguities in the legislation before committing expenditure to the regional tenements.
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