Cobalt-Nickel Project Cameroon – Exploration Commences

African Battery Metals plc (LON:ABM) the AIM listed battery metal exploration and development company is pleased to announce the commencement of exploration activities at the Company’s Cobalt-Nickel project (the “Project”) in Cameroon.

Project Background:

As part of the Company’s Strategic and Operational Review launched after the restructuring and refinancing exercise earlier this year a continuing commitment to the Company’s Cameroon interests was announced by the Company on 3 April 2019 and can be viewed through the following link:

https://www.abmplc.com/n/n97/cameroon-cobalt-nickel-project-update

Following consultation with the Company’s technical team and advisers, exploration work has now recommenced initially targeting cobalt-nickel mineralisation at certain prioritised targets within the Company’s licence areas.

Latest Highlights:

ABM to undertake pit excavation programme to a maximum depth of 15 metres per individual pit;
The pitting programme will include mapping and sampling of each excavated pit to produce a database of prospect information adding to and complementing historical work completed on site;
The work programme will commence immediately with a view to completion prior to the onset of the heavy rains and with samples to be tested in South Africa following completion of field work;
Excavation depth will extend up to 15 metres testing for cobalt and nickel mineralisation at depth to reflect the lateritic environment and the historical work conducted by Geovic Mining Corp., (“Geovic”) in their nearby licenses which demonstrated the mineralised horizons were below 6 metres;
The primary objective of the programme is to test the theory that the Company’s licence interests may demonstrate geological similarity to the nearby significant Nkamouna deposit (“Nkamouna”);
With respect to Nkamouna, Geovic published an NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource¹ on the Nkamouna deposit with a total Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 323mt of 0.21% cobalt, 0.61% nickel and 1.26% manganese.

Paul Johnson, Executive Director of African Battery Metals commented: “I am pleased to announce the recommencement of exploration field work in Cameroon, which follows the recommencement of exploration at the Kisinka project in the DRC announced in April.

As with Kisinka, we have opted to focus our initial exploration spend in a highly targeted manner, answering a simple exploration question and namely, do the identified target areas have geological similarity to the nearby Nkamouna deposit?

If the answer is positive, the impact on the value of the project to the Company could be dramatic and certainly disproportionately beneficial against the underlying modest cost of conducting the planned pitting and sampling programme.”

¹ Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report, Geovic Mining Corp by SRK Consulting (US) Inc., 02 June 2011

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20 May 2019