Luansobe Copper Project
Zambia
The company holds a 75% interest in the Luansobe Project with JV partner Statunga Investments Limited, a private Zambian company, which holds the Luansobe Project. In 2024 Statunga were awarded a Small Scale Mining Licence (34543-HQ-SML) for a period of ten years from 24 April 2024.
The SML covers an area of 354 hectares over the JORC(2012) compliant Inferred Mineral Resource reported on the 9 February 2023, which details approximately 5.8 million tonnes gross at 1% total Cu above a cut-off grade of 0.25% total Cu for 56,000 tonnes of contained Cu, potentially amenable to open-pit mining. A further JORC(2012) compliant Inferred Mineral Resource of 6.3 million tonnes gross at 1.5% total Cu above a cut-off grade of 1% Cu for 97,000 tonnes of contained Cu, extends underground, and is potentially amenable to underground mining.
Advanced mine optimisation and sensitivity analysis studies are continuing, with significant works completed by third party consultants. The Luansobe Project has the potential to be developed as a multi-resource project, with open pit, shallow underground and deeper underground resources identified. The Galileo Board are considering the potential for the Project to be split into separate mining and processing operations, each capable of generating a sustainable and profitable business.
The Luansobe Copper Project
The Luansobe area is situated some 15km to the northwest of the Mufulira Mine in the Zambian Copperbelt which produced well over 9Mt of copper metal during its operation. It forms part of the northwestern limb of the northwest – southeast trending Mufulira syncline and is essentially a strike continuation of Mufulira, with copper mineralisation hosted in the same stratigraphic horizons. At the Luansobe prospect mineralisation occurs over two semi-contiguous zones, dipping at 20-30 degrees to the northeast, over a strike length of about 3km and to a vertical depth of at least 1,250m.
Historical work focused on the upper zones of the deposit which are relatively leached in the top 30m from surface, with oxide mineralisation occurring below to a depth of roughly 70m. At acquisition, the deposit was reported to be open and relatively untested at greater depth, where the copper generally occurs as sulphides.
Since acquisition in December 2021 the company has completed twenty-eight vertical diamond drill holes for a total of 3,564m of drilling which has successfully identified wide zones of moderate grade, near-surface copper mineralisation, potentially offsetting open pit pre-stripping costs and positively impacting project economics.
Drilling highlights include
- 23.73m @ 2.63% Cu from 85.27m in hole LUDD013
- 2.56m @ 2.78% Cu from 45.44m in hole LUDD005
- 16.39m @ 0.95% Cu from 54.0m in hole LUDD009
- 7.0m @ 0.66% Cu from 21.0m in hole LUDD006
On the 9th February 2023 the company announced a new Inferred Mineral Resource for the project inclusive of:
- Approximately 5.8 million tonnes gross at 1% total Cu above a cut-off grade of 0.25% total Cu for 56,000 tonnes of contained Cu, potentially amenable to open pit mining.
- Approximately 6.3 million tonnes gross at 1.5% total Cu above a cut-off grade of 1% total Cu for 97,000 tonnes of contained Cu, potentially amenable to underground mining.
Further exploration potential exists in the southeast of the Luansobe licence area which remains under-explored with insufficient data to allow estimation of a mineral resource. Historic drilling in this area suggests a conceptual exploration target of approximately 3 to 7 million tonnes between depths of 100 to 300m with grades in the region of 1% to 1.5% total Cu, over a roughly 2km x 1km area. Further drilling amounting to roughly 5,000m is anticipated to test the resource, and an application for a second mining licence is pending.
Further, ZCCM Limited reported potential for a deeper resource at Luansobe consisting 65 million tonnes @ 2.37% Cu between 100m to 1,250m depth, parts of this resource have been tested by Galileo to a depth of 220m, but the deepest known mineralisation intersected in a small number of historic holes drilled by ZCCM Limited remains to be tested.
The JV Agreement provided Galileo the right to earn an initial 75% interest in a special purpose joint venture company to be established under Zambia law to, with Ministerial consent, acquire the exploration licence and the technical data related to the Luansobe Project by making two payments of US$200,000 each (subject to project due diligence) and issuing 5,000,000 Galileo shares to the Vendors.
These conditions were met by the company and as per the JV agreement, Galileo will continue to evaluate and optimise project feasibility in parallel to seeking third party quotes for contract mining as referred to above.
If a decision to mine is made by Galileo, then the parties will be entitled to fund pro rata to their beneficial interest in the JV Company. Any funding shortfall by the Vendors will be recovered from subsequent mine production.
