Talisman Metals Secures Additional Exploration Permits
The Irish mining exploration company Talisman Metals (TLM), listed on the AIM and engaged in copper and silver operations in Morocco, announced on September 24th, the receipt of three contiguous exploration permits from the mining service in Agadir. These permits, numbered 3942912, 3942913, and 3942914, add an impressive 47 square kilometers to their existing 16.5 square kilometers within the Tirzzit project area. This expansion brings the total area under their control to 63.5 square kilometers, providing Talisman with a significant opportunity to advance westward into already mapped mineralized zones.
Details of the New Permits and Mining Strategy
The newly issued permits are registered under Horizon Mines, a Moroccan subsidiary wholly owned by Talisman and responsible for holding its mining rights in the country. These permits will remain valid until July 24, 2029, and are adjacent to the two mining titles that previously comprised the Tirzzit project, located approximately 225 kilometers east of Agadir. Upon acquiring the project in February, Talisman characterized it as “a more advanced target with potential based on historical work results.”
This expansion comes at a time when initial drilling operations are already underway on the original perimeter. As of September 11, a total of 187 meters had been drilled out of a planned 2,770-meter program, with visible malachite—copper's carbonate mineral—identified in the drill cuttings. McCutcheon noted that the initial drill holes were already intersecting visible copper mineralization within the sedimentary deposit at Tirzzit, with laboratory analyses expected within four to six weeks following the dispatch of the first batch of samples.
On the newly allocated 47 square kilometers, Talisman plans to conduct detailed geological mapping, rock sampling, geochemical prospecting of stream sediments, and electromagnetic and induced polarization surveys aimed at testing conductive or polarizable horizons from the surface down to approximately 400 meters deep. However, the company cautions that “the work remains insufficient to establish a mineral resource estimate” for these new areas.
Part of the research will focus on the basal levels of the Neoproterozoic Adoudou formation, within which the Tirzzit mineralization is described as a stratiform copper and silver system encased in sedimentary rocks. Notably, samples released in August had revealed grades of 2.62% copper over 1.69 meters and 2.16% over 2.78 meters, which led McCutcheon to identify the newly recognized outcrop as “a key target for the planned drilling campaign.”
Mapping efforts conducted prior to drilling had also extended the known area of mineralization eastward by approximately two kilometers from a previous drill hole, in a section of the project where Talisman reported new exposed mineralization in July. The company described this observation as “a significant extension of the known mineralized zone to the east,” prompting a portion of the drilling to focus on the presumed extensions of this horizon.
Talisman acquired the Tirzzit project in February from a subsidiary of Aya Gold & Silver for 200,000 dirhams, alongside the transfer of a secondary permit in the Boumadine region back to Aya. The two initial mining titles for Tirzzit, numbered 393478 and 393507, were subsequently registered under Horizon Mines, and in August, the company commissioned Geosond Maroc for a reverse circulation drilling campaign of approximately 3,000 meters, primarily designed to “establish data points on mineralization along the entire basal series.”
As reported by barlamane.com.
