o Historical Reverse Circulation drilling returned significant
results:
- Hole
BBRC005: 4m @ 1.02% Cu from 0m; and
- Hole
BBRC004: 8m @ 0.54% Cu from 6m (including 1m @ 1.39% Cu from
10m).
o Electromagnetic (EM) geophysics as versatile time domain
electromagnetic (VTEM (airborne)), and fixed loop transient
electromagnetic surveying (FLTEM (surface)), studies have defined
various drill targets.
o An
EM anomaly near to the location of the prior work undertaken is
undrilled and untested and sits in a syncline of sedimentary rocks
that are potentially ideal for base metals (copper, lead, zinc) and
silver to be deposited.
o Further targeting tools to be assessed in order to refine and
develop targets, before drilling is undertaken.
o Gold
and uranium also being targeted as these deposit types occur within
the Ashburton Basin.
The
Project Tenement:
The Project tenement (the
"Tenement") covers 32 Blocks (approximately 102km2) (see
Figure 2 below) and is composed of one exploration licence,
E08/3604. The Tenement was granted on 2 October 2023 to Mining
Equities Pty Ltd ("Mining Equities") and expires on 26 October
2028, but is renewable. The first term is therefore five years
with a possible initial extension of five years and further
extensions of two years thereafter, with 40% of the licence area to
be surrendered at the end of year six.
Transaction Closing Terms:
Pursuant to the option and sale and
purchase agreement with Mining Equities (the "Agreement"), Oracle
has exercised its exclusive option to acquire a 100% interest in
the Tenement for £200,000, to be settled by the issue to Mining
Equities of 913,242,009 new ordinary shares of 0.1p ("Ordinary
Shares") ("Consideration Shares") as set out in the announcement of
9 April 2024.
The transfer of the Tenement from
Mining Equities to Oracle is subject to and conditional on the
Company obtaining the prior written consent of the Minister of
Mines and Petroleum in the State of Western Australia. Such
consent will be applied for when the transfer is registered with
the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry
Regulation and Safety and is expected to be
obtained shortly thereafter.
Mining Equities has agreed that the
Consideration Shares shall be subject to a three-month lock-in
period from their date of issue.
Mining Equities has not published
any statutory financial statements since it acquired the Tenement
but has incurred costs associated with the Tenement of A$53,830,
which have all been capitalised in its unaudited management
accounts.
Naheed Memon, CEO of Oracle,
commented:
"I
am very pleased to announce that we have completed the acquisition
of this exciting copper and silver project in Western Australia, of
this magnitude, that represents a great opportunity for Oracle. The
Project area is also highly prospective for gold, with the Eastern
Hills Gold Project 11km to the north and the famous Paulsen Gold
Mine 42km to the north-north-east. A number of uranium projects are
also nearby Paladin's 25.9Mlb uranium and Cauldon's 30.9Mlb uranium
deposits indicating potential sediment hosted uranium near hot
granites in the Ashburton Basin. I look forward to exploration
getting underway."
Admission and total voting rights
Application has been made to the
London Stock Exchange plc for the 913,242,009 Consideration Shares
to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that
Admission will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on or around [12] June
2024. The Consideration Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary
Shares.
On Admission, the enlarged issued
ordinary share capital of the Company will be 7,452,310,364
Ordinary Shares, with no shares held in Treasury. Therefore, the
total voting rights in the Company following Admission will be
7,452,310,364 and this figure may be used by shareholders in the
Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will
determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a
change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under
the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
For
further information on Oracle Power PLC, visit the
Company's website
www.oraclepower.co.uk
or
contact:
Oracle Power PLC
Naheed Memon - CEO
+44 (0) 203 580 4314
Strand Hanson Limited (Nominated Adviser & Joint
Broker)
Rory Murphy, Matthew Chandler, Rob
Patrick
+44 (0) 20 7409 3494
St
Brides Partners Limited (Financial PR)
Isabel de Salis, Susie Geliher,
Isabelle Morris
+44 (0) 20 7236 1177
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation No. 596/2014, which forms part of
United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European (Withdrawal)
Act 2018, as amended.
Competent Person's Statement
The information in this announcement
that relates to exploration results, mineral resources or ore
reserves, is based on information compiled by Mr Edward Mead, who
is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Mr Mead is a consultant to the Company. Mr Mead has sufficient
experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and
type of deposits under consideration and to the activity that he is
undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012
edition of the `Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration
Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' (the JORC Code). Mr
Mead consents to the inclusion of this information in the form and
context in which it appears in this announcement.
Figure 1: Photo of Rich
Copper Oxide Sample from a Historical Trench within the Blue Rock
Shafts (Techgen, 8 September 2021)
About Blue Rock Valley Copper and Silver
Project:
The Blue Rock Valley Copper and
Silver Project (E08/3604) is located in the Ashburton Basin, in the
northwest region of Western Australia. The site is located 165km
southeast of Onslow, the main port for the region's Iron and LNG
exports, which is a multi-user port. Access is from the Northwest
Coastal Highway on a well-maintained unsealed road. Refer to Figure
2 below for location.
Conceptually, the Company sees
similarities between the Project and the Maroochydore Sediment
hosted copper deposits and Nifty, both in Western Australia. Nifty
is a world class Copper deposit with Global resources exceeding
95Mt @ 1% Cu. The tectonic setting and lithological package are
similar also to the Mt Isa Formation which hosts the George Fisher
Zn-Pb-Ag deposit and the Mt Isa Copper deposit.
To further develop the Project,
subject to, inter alia,
approval of the Minister of Mines and Petroleum in Western
Australia, Oracle plans to:
·
Digitise all historical data
·
Assess the benefits of a geochemical sampling
programme
·
Assess the benefits of a ground gravity
geophysical programme
·
Undertake drilling based on the existing EM target
and any other anomalies identified
Project Geology
The eastern portion of the Project
area overlies the Wyloo Group sediments of the Ashburton Basin
which are unconformably overlain by rocks of the Edmund Basin
(previously the Bangemall Basin), which cover the western portion
of the Tenement. The contact between the Ashburton and Edmund
basins is interpreted as being a thrust contact with movement to
the west and can be clearly seen in the regional aeromagnetic
image.
Mineralisation
The Ashburton Mineral area (which
incorporates the Project area) has a long history of gold, copper,
silver, lead and zinc exploration.
Several smaller prospects which were
historically exploited for gold, copper, silver and lead are
located nearby including the Soldiers Secret and Top Camp gold
deposits. Small-scale production of copper, lead and silver has
also been recorded in the Ashburton Basin, mainly from the
Ashburton Downs copper deposits within the Project area and others
in the region such as Kooline (Pb, Ag) and Bali Hi (Cu-Pb-Ag)
areas.
Historical Exploration
The Ashburton Downs copper deposits
have a long history of exploration. Within the Project area, a
number of prospects have been examined by Jackson (2007-2010),
Cauldron Energy ("Cauldron") up to 2010, and TechGen Metals Ltd
("TechGen") to March 2022. No work has been undertaken since March
2022 to the present day. Most of the exploration was confined to
surface rock chip sampling where some high grades of copper were
identified; Jackson 10.7% Cu, Cauldron 1.82% Cu and Techgen up to
16.05% Cu.
In addition, TechGen carried out
geophysical surveys over the Project area. In March 2022, seven
reverse circulation (RC) drill holes (Table 1) were completed over
two of the three geophysical targets defined. The third target in
the syncline to the southwest of the historical Blue Rocks Mine,
remains untested and undrilled, and Oracle believes this to be the
centre of the mineralised system. Examples of the mineralisation
style can be seen in Figures 1, 3 and 4. Figure 5 illustrates the
TechGen geophysical anomalies and drill holes.
Refer to the Highlights above for
further information on the rock chip sample and RC drill hole
results.
Figure 2: Blue Rock Valley
project location and access
Figure 3: Rock sample BRR011
assayed at 49.9% Copper and 4.93g/t Silver (TechGen, 13 October
2021)
Figure 4: One of several
historical copper workings from the 1960s in the Project area with
oxide copper samples (TechGen, 19 September 2021)
Figure 5: VTEM anomalies and
drill hole locations, Blue Rock Valley Project (TechGen, 3 March
2022). The untested target is 2.2km in
strike/length
Table 1: Techgen results from
the 7 RC drill holes completed.