Belararox sharpens focus on Botswana copper targets for August drilling

• Belararox lines up August drilling at Kalahari copper project
• Targets sit along strike from copper mineralisation and prospects explored by Cobre and BHP
• BRX holds close to 4300km2 in exciting region known for world-class Khoemacau and Motheo mines 

Special Report: Belararox is making its biggest strides yet in Botswana’s exciting Kalahari copper belt, lining up four priority targets for drilling in August this year.

While Belararox (ASX:BRX) has made waves with its copper exploration near BHP’s massive Filo del Sol deposit in Argentina’s emerging Vicuna copper province, the fruits of its diligent technical work in the Kalahari are now coming to the fore.

Four targets identified in exploration licence PL0085 will be truth-tested with the drill bit after ground-based gravity and aeromagnetic surveys showed the targets are along strike of known copper mineralisation.

The sediment-hosted copper deposits of the Kalahari have become prime mining and exploration ground in recent years, with the discovery of the massive Khoemacau mine, owned by MMG, and Motheo, owned by Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR).

At the junior end of the spectrum, Cobre (ASX:CBE) has pulled in the world’s biggest miner BHP (ASX:BHP) to fund a $40m exploration program searching for a major copper deposit at its Kitlanya East and Kitlanya West projects near Khoemacau.

BRX’s targets in PL0085 lie along strike of prospects in Cobre’s Kitlanya West and its wholly owned Ngami project, with one of the highest priority drill targets held by BRX, Target 3, along strike of a Cobre intercept totalling 209.05m at 0.85% copper and 20g/t silver. The remaining targets are along strike of prospects BHP is reviewing to drill. 

The presence of so many global majors in the region has BRX MD Arvind Misra excited about the opportunity for Belararox with drilling on the way.

“Whilst the Kalahari Copper Belt is a relatively underexplored region it has already delivered multiple Tier 1 copper deposits,” he said.

“The unique opportunity presented by this highly prospective terrain has been recognised by the likes of BHP, MMG, Sandfire and South32, who are actively mining and/or exploring in this area.”

Technical triumph

Along with the start of drilling, Belararox has also retained Dr Quinton Hills as its technical advisor for the KCP, after the experienced Botswana explorer’s initial geological review of the project in 2024.

“Belararox’s exploration tenure is along strike of known copper-silver mineralisation and covers significant sections of where the highly prospective Ngwako Pan Fm/D’Kar Fm (NPF-DKF) sedimentary contact is interpreted to be preserved at shallow depths,” Hills said.

“This NPF-DKF sedimentary contact either hosts or is proximal to all the discovered copper mineralisation within this terrane and is considered to be the key to exploration success. 

“The exploration team is working very hard to deliver compelling targets backed by rigorous technical justification and is excited to be drill testing the most prospective targets generated so far within our Kalahari Copper Project.”

The KCP hosts 14 exploration licences covering 4268km2 of highly prospective geology which is known to host world-class sediment-hosted copper and silver deposits.

So far BRX has completed ground-based gravity surveys across three licences, including PL0085, an aeromagnetic tellurics survey in five licences and gathered data from 20 areas across six licences in the form of soil sample geochemistry, with the results of geophysical surveys used to generate priority drill targets.

Interim ground gravity results show Target 3 is along strike of the aforementioned Cobre intercept and Galileo Resources’ prospect PK253/2018, while Target 1 is along strike of the Kgokong and Kgori targets at Kitlanya West and Target 2 is along strike of the Tau target and Kitlanya West’s Tholo target.

Target 4 is along a poorly defined strike where the Ngwako Pan Fm/D’Kar Fm sedimentary contact is interpreted to run far deeper. A fifth target has also been picked up which BRX believes corresponds to two prospects at Cobre’s Ngami project.

Six holes are planned in PL0085/2023 to test the interpreted DKF-NPF contacts across the priority targets.

More to come

Those are far from the end of things when it comes to the prospectivity of the KCP.

Recent AMT survey results in PL770/2022 and PL2743/2023 are being reviewed for further priority targets, while an aeromag survey is planned in PL773/2022 and PL2743/2023 to confirm interpreted geology and define drill targets to be tested in early 2026.

BRX is planning to undertake 3000m of drilling to test the new targets defined by these datasets in the first half of 2026, with follow-up drilling to be considered based on first phase results.

This article was developed in collaboration with Belararox, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.