REG - Castillo Copper Ltd - Board Changes and Operational Update

Castillo CopperAnnouncement

28/01/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 9146Z  Castillo Copper Limited  28 January 2022

 

28 January 2022

 

CASTILLO COPPER LIMITED

("Castillo", "CCZ" or the "Company")

 

Board Changes and Operational Update

 

Castillo Copper Limited (LSE and ASX: CCZ), a base metal explorer primarily
focused on copper across Australia and Zambia, announces the following changes
to the Board of Directors and Officers of the Company and provides an
operational update.

 

BOARD CHANGES

 

·    Dr Dennis Jensen has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of
Castillo, effective from 1 February 2022, but is not currently being appointed
to the Board of the Company

·    Current Non-Executive Director Geoff Reed will assume the role of
Executive Director, effective from 1 February 2022, strengthening management's
geological expertise

·    Simon Paull is retiring and has stepped down as Director of the
Company

 

Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

 

Dr Jensen has been working with CCZ since early August 2021 as founding
Managing Director of subsidiary Broken Hill Alliance(2) which owns a
substantial footprint around the world-class Broken Hill zinc-silver-lead
deposit. During this period, Dr Jensen has worked closely with the Board to
ensure the BHA Project is in good standing ahead of a planned listing on the
ASX. As a result, the Board believed it was prudent to promote from within and
elevate Dr Jensen to Chief Executive Officer of CCZ.

 

Dr Jensen is a former MP, with 12 years' experience in federal politics, and
research scientist with stints at CSIRO and DST (an agency of the Department
of Defence). Since leaving politics, Dr Jensen consulted to several mining
groups prior to joining CCZ. Other than being a highly qualified and adaptable
executive, Dr Jensen has an excellent understanding of how government and
private sectors interact, coupled with a first-rate network. Dr Jensen has a
Masters in Science from Melbourne University and PhD from Monash University.

 

Appointment of Executive Director

 

To strengthen management's geological expertise, the Board has promoted Geoff
Reed to Executive Director. As a result, Mr Reed will take a more hands on
roll with the geology work, particularly in NSW where he resides. Leveraging
Mr Reed's expertise is timely, with the NSW critical minerals strategy
providing impetus to ramp up exploration activities across the BHA Project and
Cangai Copper Mine.

 

OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW

 

After considerable progress in 2021, Castillo's focus will pivot to focus on
proving up JORC 2012 mineral resources for Big One Deposit (Queensland), BHA
East Zone (Broken Hill, NSW) and Cangai Copper Mine (NSW). Concurrently,
subject to upcoming assay and geophysical results, drilling is likely to be
progressed at the Arya Prospect (Queensland) as well as Luanshya and Mkushi
Projects in Zambia.

 

North-West Queensland Copper Project

 

Big One Deposit: With sufficient data from the drilling campaigns undertaken
over the past 15-months(3), which demonstrated extensive shallow copper
mineralisation, CCZ's geology team is now working on modelling up a JORC 2012
mineral resource estimate. The Board anticipates this will be finalised during
1Q 2022.

 

Arya Prospect: Initial observations and interpretations by CCZ's geology team
highlighted the potential for a graphite discovery(4), however, this is
subject to confirmation by assays which are still at the laboratory.
Confirmation of a graphite discovery would expand CCZ's portfolio of
rechargeable battery related minerals, which is timely given the growing
demand for electric vehicles globally.

 

Further exploratory work needs to be undertaken at the Arya Prospect to
investigate a sizeable magnetic anomaly - a potential source of base metal
mineralisation - which is coincident to the electro-magnetic anomaly that was
drilled during 4Q 2021(4).

 

JORC 2012 mineral resources, New South Wales

 

On 14 January 2022(5), the Board noted it was highly encouraged by the NSW
government's new strategy, which targets building a viable downstream industry
for processing critical minerals (including cobalt-copper-REE's) and
establishing a global supply hub in the state's central west region (which
includes the BHA Project). Further analysis of the NSW government's initiative
shows that the Cangai Copper Mine is included within the critical minerals
project list(6).

 

This is an encouraging development for both projects and a key catalyst to
accelerate work on modelling / updating a JORC 2012 mineral resources, which
the Board is targeting to complete during 1H 2022 - further details follow:

 

East Zone, BHA Project: Further work by CCZ's geology team has uncovered over
1,500 incremental drill-holes within the tenure that have the potential to
contain cobalt mineralisation. The Company is in the process of working
through and interpreting this large volume of data and an announcement
updating the market of the results of this work will be made in due course.
These additional drill-holes complements the 108 drill-holes already
documented that have cobalt readings ranging from >200ppm Co up to 9,500ppm
Co(5). Consequently, CCZ's geology team is optimistic there is adequate
geological data to model up a JORC 2012 mineral resource for cobalt and
potentially zinc.

 

Cangai Copper Mine: Previous work by CCZ's geology team produced a maiden
JORC 2012 compliant inferred mineral resource of 3.2Mt @ 3.35% Cu implying
circa 108,000t of contained copper(1). As a result of being on the critical
minerals list, the geology team will review previous work and use results from
drilling undertaken in 2017-18 to update the mineral resource estimate.

 

Zambia

 

Work on the Induced Polarisation (IP) campaign at the Mkushi Project is now
complete and the results are now undergoing review by CCZ's geophysicist
consultant. The final report and potential targets for test-drilling is
expected within weeks.

 

The next phase of exploration is set to comprise drilling campaigns across
both properties, starting with the Luanshya Project. Timing is contingent on
securing a committed development partner - a number of proposals are currently
being reviewed by the Board.

 

Mr Rob Scott, Chairman of Castillo Copper, commented: "The Board's current
focus is to expedite modelling up JORC 2012 compliant mineral resources for
the Big One Deposit and East Zone within the BHA Project. In addition, the
NSW's government's new critical minerals policy is positive for resuming
development of the Cangai Copper Mine which has an inferred JORC 2012 mineral
resource comprising circa 108,000t of contained copper(1). Whilst assays are
still pending for the Arya Prospect, the Board is optimistic the observed
mineralisation is indicative of a potential graphite discovery.

 

"Moving on, I'm delighted to announce that Dr Dennis Jensen(2) has been
promoted to Chief Executive Officer and Mr Geoff Reed to Executive Director
with immediate effect. They will assume responsibility for executing the
Board's revised strategic intent to prove up JORC 2012 mineral resources
whilst continuing to develop the Arya Prospect. They take over from Mr Simon
Paull who is retiring, after building up an excellent platform during his
tenure with Castillo. We thank Mr Simon Paull for getting us to this stage and
wish him all the best for the future."

 

Dr Dennis Jensen, incoming CEO of Castillo Copper, remarked: "The Board's
objective will be to prove up JORC 2012 resources and further develop the Arya
Prospect located in the Mt Isa copper-belt. In addition, we expect to have
multiple targets to drill-test across the Luanshya and Mkushi Projects in
Zambia's copper-belt. This is an excellent opportunity and an ambitious
exploration agenda. Furthermore, with a high-quality asset portfolio, the
Board has the potential to create significant incremental value for
shareholders. Finally, I'd like to thank my former colleague, Mr Simon Paull,
for his tireless hard work over the past few years and wish him well with
retirement."

 

In addition to this release, a PDF version with supplementary information and
images can be found on the Company's website:
https://castillocopper.com/investors/announcements/
(https://castillocopper.com/investors/announcements/)

 

There is no further information to be disclosed for the purposes of Listing
Rule 9.6.13.

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Castillo Copper Limited                                         +61 8 6558 0886
 Dr Dennis Jensen (Australia), Chief Executive Officer

 Gerrard Hall (UK), Director

 SI Capital Limited (Financial Adviser and Corporate Broker)     +44 (0)1483 413500
 Nick Emerson                                                     
                                                                  
 Luther Pendragon (Financial PR)                                 +44 (0)20 7618 9100 
 Harry Chathli, Alexis Gore

 

About Castillo Copper

 

Castillo Copper Limited is an Australian-based explorer primarily focused on
copper across Australia and Zambia. The group is embarking on a strategic
transformation to morph into a mid-tier copper group underpinned by its core
projects:

 

·    A large footprint in the Mt Isa copper-belt district, north-west
Queensland, which delivers significant exploration upside through having
several high-grade targets and a sizeable untested anomaly within its
boundaries in a copper-rich region.

·    Four high-quality prospective assets across Zambia's copper-belt
which is the second largest copper producer in Africa.

·    A large tenure footprint proximal to Broken Hill's world-class
deposit that is prospective for zinc-silver-lead-copper-gold.

·    Cangai Copper Mine in northern New South Wales, which is one of
Australia's highest grading historic copper mines.

 

The group is listed on the LSE and ASX under the ticker "CCZ."

 

References

 

1)     CCZ ASX Release - 6 September 2017

2)     CCZ ASX Release - 5 August 2021

3)        CCZ ASX Release - 5 October 2021

4)        CCZ ASX Release - 10 August 2021 & 17 November 2021

5)        CCZ ASX Release - 14 January 2021

6)        NSW government - Critical Minerals. Available at:
https://www.regional.nsw.gov.au/meg/nsw-resources/critical-minerals

 

Competent Person Statement

 

The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on
information compiled or reviewed by Mr Geoffrey Reed, an Executive Director of
CCZ. Mr Reed is both a shareholder and director of Bluespoint Mining Services,
a company which is a shareholder of Castillo Copper Limited. Bluespoint Mining
Services provides ad hoc geological consultancy services to Castillo Copper
Limited. Mr Reed is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and
Metallurgy (CP) (member #250422) and has sufficient experience of relevance to
the styles of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration, and to
the activities undertaken, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the
2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Australasian Code for
Reporting of Exploration Results, and Mineral Resources. Mr Reed is a member
of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Further, Mr Reed consents to the
inclusion in this report of the matters based on information in the form and
context in which it appears.

 

 

 

 

Appendix 1 - Summary of Key Terms of Executive Service Agreements

 

 Parties to the Consulting  Dr Dennis Jensen                                                Mr Geoff Reed

 Agreement
 Position                   Chief Executive Director                                        Executive Director
 Commencement Date          1 February 2022                                                 1 February 2022
 Term                       No fixed term                                                   No fixed term
 Remuneration               $180,000 plus statutory superannuation                          $100,000 plus GST
 Options                    Unlisted options: 5,000,000 Expiry: 3 years from date of issue  N/A

                            Strike: $0.08
 Termination                3 months written notice by either party                         3 months written notice by either party

 

 

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