REG - Kefi Gold and Copper - Exploration Licence Awarded in Saudi Arabia

KEFI Gold and CopperAnnouncement

16/01/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 5770T  Kefi Gold and Copper PLC  16 January 2025

16 January 2025

KEFI Gold and Copper plc

("KEFI" or the "Company")

Strategic Exploration Licence Awarded in Saudi Arabia

KEFI (AIM: KEFI), the gold and copper exploration and development company
focused on the Arabian-Nubian Shield, announces that its Gold and Minerals SLA
("GMCO") joint venture in Saudi Arabia has been awarded the Umm Hijlan
Exploration Licence ("EL"), located directly south of the Hawiah EL. The
licence was secured following a competitive bidding process that assessed the
quality and merits of each tenderer's proposed exploration programme.

GMCO has long identified this EL as a key target, given its proven extension
of the southern strike continuation of the main Hawiah volcanic massive
sulphide ("VMS") system.

The Umm Hijlan EL consolidates a 210km(2) strategic licence area for GMCO and
offers the prospect of adding significant additional oxide and sulphide
resources to the advanced Hawiah Copper-Gold-Zinc-Silver Project. The Hawiah
and Al Godeyer VMS deposits already contain Mineral Resources totalling 30
million tonnes ("Mt") at 2.5g/t gold-equivalent or c. 2.5 million
gold-equivalent ounces. In copper equivalent terms, it represents
approximately 30Mt at 1.7% copper-equivalent or 510Kt of copper (based on
prices of US$9,500/t copper, US$2,600/t zinc, US$1,965/oz gold and US$24/oz
silver).

The Umm Hijlan EL was part of the Round seven Bidding process conducted by the
Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. The award of the EL was
accepted by GMCO's recently appointed Chief Executive, Mr John Webster, and
members of the GMCO exploration team on the first day of the Future Minerals
Forum, currently being held in Riyadh.

KEFI Executive Chairman, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams commented: "The Umm Hijlan
EL provides the opportunity to quickly add nearby Mineral Resources to the
Hawiah Copper-Gold-Zinc-Silver Project which is at the Definitive Feasibility
Study stage. The EL potentially increases the strike length of the already-
"JORC'd" mineralised structure from c. 5kms to 9kms. Being a continuation of
the same VMS system, these potential resources are likely to turbocharge the
economics of the Hawiah Project.

"Umm Al Hijlan also presents the opportunity to explore large nearby
mineralised intrusions, which feature a distinct style of later-stage,
gold-rich mineralisation.

"The expanded Hawiah Project is now a very strategic holding in the tightly
held Wadi Bidah Mineral District, with recent extensive pegging by the Ivanhoe
Electric/Maaden Joint Venture. Hawiah already ranks in the largest 10% of VMS
deposits globally and the extension into Umm Al Hijlan is expected to further
elevate its rank. This licence award coincides with the impending upgraded
JORC resource statement at Hawiah following last year's exploration programme
- a new JORC resource will shortly be published for Jibal Qutman also

"KEFI is continuing to progress the strategic review of its GMCO holding,
which we are targeting to be resolved in tandem with the launch of Tulu Kapi.
KEFI has made it clear that the priority for its capital is to now optimise
shareholder value via majority-owned projects."

Prospectivity of Umm Hijlan EL already demonstrated

Geological mapping carried out by both the Bureau de Recherches Geoligiques et
Miniere ("BRGM") of France and the GMCO exploration team, has identified
several prospective areas including the Umm Hijlan and Al Jaufir gossans,
which and can be traced over a discontinuous strike of 4km. These gossans
start to outcrop 5km south along strike from the Hawiah gossan (see Figure 1
in the appendix).

 

Historical drilling and trenching conducted by the BRGM in 1989 intersected
high-grade gold mineralisation within the oxide domain of the Umm Hijlan
deposit with results including:

 

 ·         Trench 7:           8m at 13.9g/t Au
 ·         CO-08:              7.3m at 11.1g/t Au  from 14.7m
 ·         CO-05:              5.6m at 18.8g/t Au from 18.9m

 

These intercepts indicate there may be a near-surface, gold-rich zone amenable
to open-pit mining similar to the Hawiah deposit.

 

The Umm Hijlan EL also provides the company the opportunity to explore a
separate gold system related to an intrusive contact which was also identified
by the BRGM which can be traced over a discontinuous strike of 10km (see
Figure 1 in the appendix). The Mamilah gold system outcrops at several
locations presenting as lenses of mineralised quartz veins with thickness of
up to 20m and strike lengths of up to 200m. The main outcrop area was tested
with shallow drilling by the BRGM with results including:

 

 ·         Hole 17:           3.6m at 6.0g/t Au from 18m
 ·         Hole 5:            4m a 6.0g/t Au from 22m
 ·         Hole 7:            4m at 12.4 g/t Au from 21m

 

The above historical BRGM work is summarised in an open file report
"BRGM-OF-09-10 (1989)" and further background is available in the Saudi
Ministry's Information  Memorandum for Umm Hijlan EL
(https://taadeen.sa/sites/default/files/2024-10/Umm-Hijlan----Information-Memorandum--201024---FINAL.pdf)
.

 

Planned exploration of Umm Hijlan EL

 

An ambitious exploration programme has been designed to evaluate the Umm
Hijlan and Al Jaufir gossans, which is likely to contain mineralisation
similar to the Hawiah copper-gold-zinc orebody. The aim is to quickly define
Mineral Resources under these gossans and bring them to the confidence level
of Hawiah and Al Godeyer deposits for inclusion in mine planning.

 

GMCO also plans to commence exploration over the Mamilah gold system and
commence metallurgical, geotechnical and environmental programmes.

 

Enquiries

 KEFI Gold and Copper plc
 Harry Anagnostaras-Adams (Executive Chairman)       +357 99457843
 John Leach (Finance Director)                       +357 99208130

 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser)  +44 (0) 20 3470 0470
 Jeff Keating, Adam Cowl

 Tavira Financial Limited (Lead Broker)              +44 (0) 20 7100 5100
 Oliver Stansfield, Jonathan Evans

 IFC Advisory Ltd (Financial PR and IR)              +44 (0) 20 3934 6630
 Tim Metcalfe, Florence Chandler

 3PPB LLC (Institutional IR)
 Patrick Chidley                                     +1 (917) 991 7701
 Paul Durham                                         +1-203-940-2538

 

 

Appendix

Figure 1

 

Source: June 2024 GMCO Monthly Report.

 

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