Shuka Minerals (AIM:SKA) has appointed Ox Drilling as the drilling contractor for the Phase 1 programme at the Kabwe Zinc Mine via its Zambian subsidiary Leopard Exploration and Mining, with mobilisation planned for mid-May.
The c.2,000m programme will use PQ and HQ core to test known mineralised zones around and beneath historic workings at vertical depths of 100-500m, and its results will help finalise collar locations for a broader 10,000m Phase 2 and a JORC resource and reserves upgrade later in 2026, Shuka Minerals, an African-focused mine operator and developer, said.
This is the first resource drilling at Kabwe since the 1970s and forms part of Shuka’s 2026 objective to increase the existing 6.8Mt resource at 13.3% zinc and 3.3% lead by 50%, a deposit Behre Dolbear valued in-situ at US$4bn (NI 43-101 2023).
The programme is also designed to better define concentrations and metallurgy of silver, vanadium, germanium and gallium as potential by-products of zinc and lead production.
Ox, based in Ndola around 180km north of Kabwe, has operated in Zambia, the DRC and southern Africa for more than 20 years, runs a modern fleet and has previously drilled for BHP Billiton, Barrick and First Quantum.
GeoQuest, a Zambian-based independent geological and environmental consultancy whose principals are known to CEO Richard Lloyd, will log core, perform on-site XRF for multiple elements, prepare samples and dispatch them to ALS Zambia in Lusaka for assay and metallurgical testing.
"It is really exciting to now embark on the fully-funded drilling campaign at Kabwe," CEO Richard Lloyd said.
