Exploration

Dikulushi (DRC)

The Company’s first operation at Dikulushi has been in production since 2002, establishing a strong foundation for Anvil’s development. The exploration group has worked on two key tasks to extend Dikulushi’s operating life and improve the value of the operation:

•   accurate definition of deep reserves to support an underground mining operation, and
•   identification of potential open pit satellite mines or new mining operations in the Dikulushi region.

Tenements

The Dikulushi Mine, located 400km NNE of Lubumbashi, the provincial capital of Katanga, is situated at the centre of a contiguous block of 21 Exploration Licences (Permis de Recherches, or PR’s).

Eight of the 21 PR’s, which define the Kapulo area, located approximately 130km northeast of Dikulushi Mine, have been farmed out to Mawson West (www.mawsonwest.com.au), which can earn a 65% equity interest in Kapulo by spending $4 million over four years. Alternatively, Mawson West could earn a 51% interest in these tenements by spending $2.7 million or by defining a JORC-compliant resource of 50,000t copper, at a grade of >4% Cu, whichever comes first.

Geology

The Dikulushi copper-silver deposit is a hydrothermal vein, hosted by an alternating sequence of sandstones and shales of the Mongwe Formation, which is stratigraphically above the major deposits of the Central African Copperbelt. The main vein is orientated ENE and dips to the south at about 70º. Disseminated mineralization occurs in the hanging wall of the main vein, associated with a fracture zone that parallels a major NE-trending fault, the Tambe Fault, which is believed to have been the main feeder zone for mineralizing fluids. The deposit is situated on the northeastern nose of a regional doubly plunging anticline, where this fault intersects the contact between the Mongwe Formation and an underlying carbonate unit (the Kiaka Formation); this intersection is considered to be a key control on the location of ore. Copper mineralisation is primarily massive and disseminated chalcocite (in which silver occurs in solid solution), but bornite, minor chalcopyrite and native copper also occur. Zinc and lead, as sphalerite and galena, are minor components of ore at the western end of the deposit.

Several copper occurrences have been discovered in the Dikulushi area (Kibili Mensi, Kaswete, Kasumbula), a few of which have been worked by artisanal miners

Exploration History

The Dikulushi deposit was discovered in 1911, but little work was carried out on site until the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières BRGM began an evaluation in 1974, which culminated in the completion of a feasibility study in 1981. Anvil began its first exploration campaign in 1997/98, with a Diamond Drilling program designed to confirm the BRGM resource estimate, but this was curtailed with the outbreak of war. The second round of exploration began in 2002, with an RC drill program designed to increase the defined resource at depth. In total, Anvil has undertaken seven drill programs at Dikulushi, including two that are ongoing. The first of these is the Phase 2 Deeps program, which is aimed at testing recently defined targets for orebody extensions, and the second is an RC program designed to test numerous geochemical anomalies around the margins of the Dikulushi Anticline.

In addition to drilling, Anvil has completed several campaigns of regional geochemical sampling, using both soils and termiteria as sampling media. Numerous anomalies and broader areas of interest have been defined, which will be followed up by drilling. Ground magnetic surveys are being conducted over areas of interest where exposure is poor, to assist with geological interpretation and better definition of drill targets.

Three airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys have also been flown, in 2004, 2005 and, most recently, in 2006/7. The first two provided coverage over the Dikulushi deposit itself and the Dikulushi anticline, and this data set greatly improved the geological interpretation of the area. The third survey, which was completed in April 2007, was flown over a much broader area (30,000 line km), and was designed to locate regional-scale geological features, like the Dikulushi Anticline and the Tambe Fault, which could be associated with similar deposits to Dikulushi.

Current Work Program

Extension of the current resource base:

• Testing up and down plunge extensions of shoots within the orebody
• Testing for a new orebody in the current footwall
• Defining inferred resources to 500m below surface

Identification of new open-pittable resources, close to Dikulushi, to supplement high grade ore from the new underground operation:

• Drill testing all currently defined geochemical anomalies
• Following up new artisanal workings, and drill testing if warranted
• Defining new areas of interest from airborne geophysics, and following up with geochemical sampling, ground geophysics and drilling