Significant Findings from Diamond Drilling
The mining company Critical Mineral Resources plc (CMR), known for its exploration activities in copper, silver, and gold, announced on September 24 that it has completed 21 diamond drill holes at its Agadir Melloul project, located in the western Anti-Atlas region. Among the notable results, one intersection measured just 0.2 meters but yielded an impressive 5,390 grams of silver per ton, along with 10.24% copper and 2.80 grams of gold per ton. This significant mineralization is regarded by the company as a potential indicator of a high-grade silver structure associated with a fault line.
This remarkable intersection was part of drill hole BH 174, which also revealed eight meters of mineralization averaging 0.58% copper, 147 grams of silver per ton, and 0.26 grams of gold per ton starting from a depth of 63 meters. Furthermore, it included a more concentrated segment of 1.6 meters at 1.67% copper and 695 grams of silver per ton. In proximity, drill hole BH 175 produced one meter at 0.72% copper, 402 grams of silver per ton, and 0.36 grams of gold per ton starting at 34 meters, along with an additional five meters at 0.55% copper at 79.3 meters.
Exploration and Future Prospects
The drilling activities have also extended eastward the stratiform copper and silver mineralization from Zone 1 towards Zone 2. Drill hole BH 160 notably intersected 10.2 meters at 0.72% copper from 41 meters, including one meter at 2.46% copper and 20 grams of silver per ton. Meanwhile, BH 161 encountered 7.7 meters at 0.51% copper from 22 meters. CMR has correlated these findings with prior intersections of three meters at 1.09% copper in BH 38 and 3.5 meters at 1.02% in BH 119.
CMR’s geological interpretation now differentiates the high silver grades from BH 174 and BH 175 from the primary sedimentary copper system. The former encountered massive sulfides directly adjacent to a north-northwest-oriented fault at 66 meters depth, while the latter revealed significant quartz and carbonate veining. Charlie Long, the CEO, emphasized that _"it is still early, and we must continue our work to determine its orientation, depth extension, continuity, and magnitude"._ The company believes there is a possibility of a distinct silver target rather than merely a richer silver zone within the copper deposit, as the geometry and continuity have yet to be established. Long summarized this hypothesis by stating that _"a distinct silver target could now complement our primary sedimentary copper target"._
The exploration permits and mining license for Agadir Melloul encompass approximately 65 square kilometers, situated about 250 kilometers southwest of Marrakech and 240 kilometers from the port of Agadir. To date, CMR has completed a total of 272 drill holes, comprising 244 diamond drill holes and 28 reverse circulation holes, totaling 11,347 meters, with depths ranging from five to 98 meters and an average depth of 42 meters. Since the signing of the joint venture agreement in May 2025, the 244 diamond drill holes represent 8,200 meters, primarily between Zones 1 and 2, while 2,137 samples have been sent to Afrilab in Morocco for multi-element analysis following digestion with four acids.
Summer work has mainly focused on delineating copper mineralization to support the ongoing mineral resource estimate, with several batches of analysis still pending at the laboratory. CMR anticipates receiving a new batch of results in the next two to three weeks, primarily concerning sedimentary copper, with Long reiterating that _"it is crucial to distinguish between properly mineralized sectors and those that are not or remain below our cutoff grade"._
As reported by barlamane.com.
