ASX ANNOUNCEMENT

29 August 2017 ASX code:SBR

RENEWAL OF EPL 3540 OTAVI MOUNTAIN LAND PROJECT - NAMIBIA HIGHLIGHTS
  • Kombat Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag Corridor Tenement EPL 3540 Renewed.
  • EPL 3540 contains the Kombat Corridor which is the 40 km long prospective contact extending approximately east-west from the Baltika Zn-Pb-V prospect in the west, through the Gross Otavi and Kombat Copper mines, to the Guchab historical copper mining center at the eastern end of EPL 3540 (Figure 2).
  • Significant prospects include:
    • Guchab South Cu-Ag prospect where disseminated copper mineralisation, including bornite, chalcocite, chalcopyrite, and malachite, have been identified in outcrop covering an area measuring over 850 metres by around 100 metres
    • Baltika Zn-Pb-V prospect where 5,820t of concentrate grading 9% vanadium pentoxide was produced between 1931 and 1942
  • Sabre's security on both its granted tenements will enable the company to recommence exploration with confidence.

ALL GRANTED TENEMENTS NOW RENEWED

The Company is pleased to announce that it has received confirmation from the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy of the renewal of exploration licence EPL 3540. The licence has been renewed for two years from 30 October 2016 to 29 October 2018. The application for the renewal was lodged in the September quarter of 2015 ahead of the due date and renewal has only just been received.

Tenement EPL 3540 (SBR 70%) together with EPL 3542 (SBR 80% - renewal granted earlier this year) comprise Sabre's Otavi Mountain Land Project ("OML Project") in northern Namibia, in southern Africa.

The lack of security of tenure has been of great concern to the Company, its management, auditors and shareholders, and it has impacted on the ability of the Company to progress its exploration and access the capital Markets. The Company is pleased that, now it has security of tenure, it can proceed with exploration.

OTAVI MOUNTAIN LAND PROJECT ("OML PROJECT")

The Otavi Mountain Land is a highly prospective, underexplored area which has potential for high- value Tsumeb-style copper and stratabound zinc-lead mineralisation.

Sabre's exploration has continued the focus on extensive areas of cover or poor outcrop which have been largely ignored by previous explorers.

This program has:

  1. Prioritised the two areas at Guchab South and Toggenburg, where broad areas of copper and zinc-lead sulphide mineralisation respectively, have been discovered in the subsurface,

  2. Completed regional soil geochemistry along key mineralised corridors which has identified significant Zn-Pb anomalism at the Auros prospect located to the west along the Driehoek Corridor.

    • Figure 1 - Location of Sabre's Otavi Mountain Land Project in northern Namibia. Red lines are highways, black crossed lines are railways, black squares are towns and cities, and black star is the capital, Windhoek.

HIGHLIGHTS OF HISTORICAL EXPLORATION

Shallow drilling of numerous zinc-lead and copper targets on the Border-Toggenburg and Kombat Corridors respectively has identified the highly prospective areas at Toggenburg and Guchab South that are undergoing detailed examination.

The Toggenburg zinc-lead-silver prospect was discovered late in 2014 when shallow drilling at a strategically defined target area intercepted strong zinc and lead anomalism and visible sphalerite and galena mineralisation. Subsequent investigation has shown that:

  • The Toggenburg anomaly is large, measuring over 2.8 km long and up to 250 m wide.

  • Toggenburg is entirely covered by a veneer of less than 5 m of sand and silts. No outcrops of zinc-lead mineralisation have been identified. As such, there are no historical workings nor records of exploration in the vicinity of the prospect area.

  • It is located less than 2 km along strike to the east of Sabre's Border zinc-lead deposit, which has a JORC 2012 Inferred Resource of 16.0 Mt @ 1.53 % Zn, 0.59 % Pb and 4.76 g/t Ag.

  • At Toggenburg, sampling of the uppermost bedrock has recorded combined zinc and lead values up to 2.9 %. These results are high for the near-surface depletion zone and correspond with visible sulphides.

  • The anomalies defining the Toggenburg prospect are open to the east and to the west.

  • The Toggenburg anomalies cover an area more than four times the size of the equivalent anomaly at Border, where a 0.1% Zn+Pb cutoff in the near-surface approximates the footprint of zinc and lead sulphide mineralisation at depth.

    The Auros anomaly has been defined using a 0.1% Zn+Pb cutoff (as at Toggenburg) and contains a peak value of 8.25 % Zn+Pb (6.30 % Zn and 1.95 % Pb - determined by portable XRF) near the historic Nageib workings. Numerous percentage-grade results were obtained in areas with no known historic mining activity. One such area, which recorded soil values up to 4.65 % Zn+Pb (3.20 % Zn and 1.45 % Pb), exhibits outcropping brecciated and disseminated sphalerite and galena mineralisation.

    Strategic targeting for copper at Guchab South within EPL 3540 identified copper anomalism and sulphide mineralisation over a broad area. Sparse outcrops show common copper sulphide mineralisation, as well as features strongly reminiscent of mineralisation at the nearby Kombat copper mine. At the Guchab South copper-silver prospect:

  • Disseminated copper mineralisation is exposed over an 850 x 100 m area.

  • Copper sulphides bornite, chalcocite, and chalcopyrite are exposed in sparsely distributed outcrops, along with oxidised copper minerals malachite and chrysocolla.

  • Mineralisation, alteration, and deformation styles are all consistent with hydrothermal Kombat style copper deposits.

  • Shallow geochemical drilling shows that the distribution of copper in bedrock defines an area coincident with the outcropping mineralisation.

  • Disseminated copper mineralisation is interpreted to be the halo to potentially more massive mineralisation down plunge to the west of the exposed mineralisation.

Work continues at both prospects and at other target areas.

PROJECT LOCATION

Sabre's Otavi Mountain Land project is located in northern Namibia, in southern Africa (Figure 1). The project comprises two granted tenements, EPL 3540 (SBR 70%) and EPL 3542 (SBR 80%), which cover about 347 sq.km of the 'Otavi Triangle' (Figure 2).

  • Figure 2 - The Otavi Mountain Land, showing roads (red) railroads (black hatched), towns (black square), major mines and deposits (crosses) and the Tsumeb smelter complex. Sabre's two licences, EPL3540 and EPL3542, are located in the highly mineralised south of the area. Mining licences (grey cross-hatched) are not owned by Sabre and are excised from the licences.

The Otavi Mountain Land is home to numerous historic mines, including the Tsumeb copper-lead-zinc mine and smelter complex, plus the Kombat copper mine. These mines are currently on care & maintenance, but the Tsumeb copper smelter remains one of only five operating copper smelters in Africa. The presence of these and other significant mining and processing operations has resulted in the provision of excellent infrastructure throughout the region.

Overall, the Otavi Mountain Land displays a significant mineral endowment of copper, zinc, lead, vanadium, and some semi-precious metals, with well-established supporting infrastructure.

Sabre Resources Limited published this content on 29 August 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 31 August 2017 08:42:05 UTC.

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