Exploration

Kolwezi (DRC)

The famous Kolwezi Klippe is one of the most productive regions of the African Copperbelt. Joint venture holdings of Anvil (80%) and Gécamines (20%) cover 29% of the Klippe which has traditionally produced more than 70% of the DRC copper mineral product. The area has extensive un-mined deposits with potential for the revival of a major industry.
Anvil has four key areas of interest:

• Mutoshi, previously the site of one of the world’s most productive copper mines
• Mutoshi Stage 1 HMS, where the Company has a tailing processing operation
• Nioka-Kampese, and
• Kamukonko

The current priority target for Anvil’s exploration group is to identify 500,000 tonnes of open-pittable copper resource at Mutoshi to justify an SX-EW copper plant.

In addition, the Kolwezi program is looking to define additional resources for the Mutoshi project to support the development of an SX-EW processing plant.

In Q4 2008, owing to the low copper price, the Company suspended exploration activity in the Kolwezi area.

2008 Drilling Program

During 2008, an $11.5 million scope drilling program, comprising over 710 holes drilled to an average depth of 80 metres was completed.  The scope drilling program concentrated on areas surrounding the abandoned Mutoshi Pit, including the Mutoshi North, West and Cobalt prospects, together with the Manga, Kinanga, Mulusonoi and RAT Breche properties.  The average grades of significant copper and cobalt intercepts reported to date include:  4.6% Cu over 28 metres, 4.4% Cu over 26 metres, 3.0% Cu over 58 metres, 1.1% Co over 16 metres and 0.6% Co over 32 metres.  The results from this drilling, along with results from 194 drill holes from earlier Gécamines exploration programs have allowed for establishment of a 64,000 drill metre database containing over 33,000 assays.

The objective of the scope drilling program was to outline sufficient near-surface oxide copper and cobalt mineralization, to justify development of the Mutoshi Stage II SX-EW plant. Further infill drilling and metallurgical testwork is required in order to enable completion of a Mineral Resource estimate for the Mutoshi area. More than 15,000 assays have been received for samples from the scope drilling program and more than 10,000 assay results are still awaited.
From the results of the Mutoshi scope drilling program, a grade-tonnage model has been created which has allowed for the development of preliminary mine planning and notional mining schedules for feed to the Mutoshi Stage II SX-EW plant. A scoping study for a SX-EW plant facility will be completed in the second half of 2009.

Tenements

Anvil’s tenement portfolio in the Kolwezi District is comprised of four Mineral Licenses. Two of the three Mining Licenses (Permis d’Exploitation), PE2604 (Mutoshi) and PE2605 (Nioka-Kampese) are located within the Kolwezi Klippe (shown in the following map), while the third, PE663 (Kamukonko) covers a small unit of prospective stratigraphy off the main Klippe. The three PE’s have a combined area of 80.7km². The fourth licence is a Tailings Processing Licence (Permis d’Exploitation Remblais), PER2812 (Kulumaziba), which covers an area of 57.8km², over the 14km of the Kulumaziba River. All of the tenements are held by Société Minière de Kolwezi (SMK), a joint venture company between Anvil (80%) and Gécamines (20%).

Anvil tenements cover 29% of the Kolwezi Klippe.

Ongoing discussions with Gécamines

As part of the DRC Government Review of Mining Agreements process, the Company has agreed on commercial terms with Gécamines and the DRC Government in October 2008 and is confident that a satisfactory amended Mutoshi JV Agreement can be concluded with its JV partner Gécamines.

Geology of the Kolwezi Klippe

The copper-cobalt deposits in the Kolwezi District are located within the so-called Kolwezi Klippe, a discrete geological terrain that is interpreted to have been thrust, by several tens of kilometers, over younger rocks into its current position. The Klippe hosts numerous “fragments” of prospective “Mines Group” stratigraphy, and is reputed to contain 880Mt of ore (past production and known resources), with an average grade of 4.5% Cu and 0.4% Co - for an estimated global resource of 40Mt copper and 3.5Mt cobalt. Approximately 70% of the total historical production from Katanga is reported to come from the Kolwezi Klippe, and in the late 1980s production amounted to 350,000t copper per annum.

Mineralisation in the Kolwezi Klippe typically occurs in two 10-20m thick orebodies, within specific stratigraphic horizons within the Mines Group “fragments.” Both are hosted by dolomites and dolomitic shales, but the “Lower Orebody” is separated from the “Upper Orebody” by a 20m thick barren zone of silicified, stromatilitic dolomite (the so-called “RSC” unit). Because the “RSC” is silicified, and therefore very hard, it forms characteristic outcrops, which are useful as a marker horizon for regional mapping.