Muiane
With the largest Tantalum licence ground position in Mozambique, Pacific Wildcat has several mining leases covering over 450 square kilometres located on parts of the Alto Ligonha pegmatite belt recognised as one of the premier mineralised pegmatite fields in the world, which historically has been the subject of extensive tantalum and lithium production. The leases cover several tantalum occurrences including the existing resource at the dormant Muiane Mine and various other historically mined areas, these areas of previous mining activity provide delineated exploration targets, both near surface and at depth.
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The company will be applying a modern hard rock exploration approach to its extensive ground holdings, as in the past exploration has been focused on weathered pegmatites at surface with very little focus on hard rock extensions or buried pegmatites.
The most developed asset is the Muiane Project. This is a weathered hill top containing indicated oxide resources of 1.375Mt @ 250g/t Ta2O5 containing 0.75M lbs*. Drilling of the ore body is extensive but generally limited to 60m depth and the hard rock potential has not been fully tested. * All references to resources are the subject of a national Instrument 43-101 technical report titled “Technical Report on the Mineral Assets of Tantalum Mineração and Prospecção Limitada”, dated 25th May 2009 – Global Mining Services.
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Muiane is well positioned, situated in the central northern part of Mozambique, near the regional centre of Nampula. It is well located close to major infrastructure in the region with Nampula just 2.5 hours away by car and the major port of Nacala is readily accessible. There is ample water available and hydro sourced power is within 22 kilometres of the project. In addition to Tantalum there are other minerals at Muiane, such as kaolin clays which are of paper quality with relatively high tonnages, the area also has a long history of beryl production and there is strong evidence of spodumene (lithium) zones as well.
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As well as the Muiane Mine there are a number of other high quality exploration targets that the company will initially be focussing on within the project area.
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| Historic Exploration Trench at Muiane | Historic Exploration Trench at Maridge |
Spirit Valley sits 100m directly to the east of the Muiane deposit and was a significant mine in colonial times producing tantalum, beryl and tourmalines. Historically only 4 drill holes have been drilled in the base of Spirit Valley, all of which have struck mineralisation, the best being hole NH-074 for 10m @ 5,900g/t Ta2O5. Infill drilling of this potentially high grade mineralisation will be a primary and immediate target.
The Maridge pegmatite is only seven kilometres north-west of Muiane and has been a large producer of beryl and tantalum from its discovery in the 1950’s until 1974 when mining stopped with the advent of the civil war. Aerial photography clearly suggests that the pegmatite itself is considerably larger than the current pit which is 20m deep and over 440m long.
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The area known as the Twigg License is also considered very prospective for tantalum due to the presence of two colonial pegmatite mines and pegmatitic host rocks. Considerable exploration for gold and base metals, including geochemistry and geological mapping, has also been carried out on this license in the past.
In addition to our current ground holdings, existing pegmatite fields in other parts of Africa will be targeted. These fields are well known and the geological processes for zonation and concentration of tantalum within the pegmatites is evident. Pacific Wildcat are looking to add further value to the company’s existing resource base in the future through acquisitions and joint ventures with the aim of becoming a top 5 global tantalum ore supplier.