Special Report: Finding the edges of the mammoth polymetallic system at Bawdwin in Myanmar just got trickier. Recent drilling has successfully extended the length of the ER Valley discovery — a stone’s throw from Bawdwin’s current defined resource — to over 180m.

Myanmar Metals’ (ASX:MYL) eight-hole, 1,240m drilling program in March and April was designed to follow up on an exceptional ER Valley discovery hole from 2019, which assayed 13m at 5.5 per cent copper, 79 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 0.3 per cent cobalt and 0.5 per cent nickel, 156m from surface.

This drilling was cut short due to COVID-19 but still managed to intercept copper-cobalt mineralisation “in multiple holes at excellent grades across varying depths and widths”, the company says.

Highlights included 3m at 0.13 per cent cobalt and 3.1 per cent copper, 129m from surface.

A new zone of high-grade lead was also intersected — including 10m at 7.7 per cent lead — southwest of ER Valley, further west than previously defined mineralisation.

For near-term project developer Myanmar Metals, this is very significant.

It provides growing evidence that the mineralised zone at Bawdwin expands south from the ‘Meingtha’ Lode towards ER Valley, and possibly another 450m beyond ER Valley to Pangyun Junction:

Andrew Ford, general manager of geology at Myanmar Metals, says ER Valley could ‘join up’ to the Meingtha mineralisation located only 150m to the northwest of the northernmost ER Valley drill hole.

“The results strengthen the argument to begin drilling to the east, to follow up a strong lead-in-soil anomaly identified in 2019 along the western side of Mt Teddy,” Ford says.

“The 1960s-developed 4530S Adit below Mt Teddy intersected 35m at 6.4 per cent combined lead and zinc in historic assays.”

Assessment of the drill results and refinement of the geological model for the Meingtha-ER Valley-Mt Teddy area will be conducted over the next few weeks, Myanmar Metals says.

 

Bawdwin: already a monster

When production begins in late 2022, Bawdwin will be the world’s #3 lead producer and a top-10 silver producer, over a potential mine life spanning many decades.

The central part of the Bawdwin mineralised system is about 2km long, 400m wide, and remains open in all directions. It already represents decades and decades of mining.

Additional resource definition through exploration drilling is clearly not required to justify project development.

But Myanmar Metals believes exploration, in areas known to host copper and cobalt mineralisation, could potentially lead to the production of a third concentrate product which could enhance the already robust project economics.

NOW READ: ‘A geological rarity’: mine developer Myanmar Metals establishes a foothold in one of the world’s most exciting mineral provinces

 

This story was developed in collaboration with Myanmar Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.