Rich ore discovered in drilling at Selebi copper-nickel mine in Botswana

Published: Jul 7, 2025 09:10

Save

According to a report from Mining.com, NexMetals Mining announced on Monday that it had encountered rich ore during drilling at the Selebi North deposit in eastern Botswana. The project is located 410 kilometers north of the capital, Gaborone.

The SNUG-25-184 hole, deployed in the southern limb of the orebody, encountered 13.5 meters of ore at a depth of 772.6 meters, with a copper grade of 1.13% and a nickel grade of 1.25%. This includes a 4.95-meter-thick mineralization with a copper grade of 1.76% and a nickel grade of 1.85%.

The SNUG-25-185 hole, deployed in the N2 limb, encountered 5.95 meters of ore with a copper grade of 2.87% and a nickel grade of 0.62%.

The SNUG-25-184 and SNUG-25-185 holes are the first two holes planned for drilling in this project.

"The drilling results from holes 184 and 185 continue to indicate highly successful step-out drilling, significantly extending beyond the current resource boundary," said Morgan Lekstrom, CEO of NexMetals Mining. "The drilling has further extended the orebody down-dip by 315 meters, completely exceeding the modeled boundary."

Just a month ago, the company changed its name from Premium Resources to its current name, with the aim of focusing on critical minerals at the old Selebi mine. In February, the company raised CAD 36 million from mining magnate Frank Giustra and his Fiore Group. Cymbria, a subsidiary of wealth management firm EdgePoint Investment Group, also agreed to clear Premium's CAD 20.8 million term loan.

Prospective ore limbs

The SNUG-25-184 hole also penetrated the N2 ore limb, encountering 6.25 meters of ore at a depth of 882.75 meters, with a copper grade of 0.62% and a nickel grade of 0.75%.

This deposit was previously mined and later named the N2, N3, and southern limbs to better distinguish their positions within this folded ore layer.

The ongoing drilling aims to extend and verify the strike extension of the orebody.

Initial resource estimate

Nearly a year ago, NexMetals announced the initial resource estimate for Selebi: The main deposit has an inferred ore resource of 18.9 million mt, with a nickel grade of 0.88% and a copper grade of 1.69%, translating to a nickel metal content of 165,000 mt and a copper metal content of 319,000 mt.

The northern deposit, approximately 6 kilometers from the main deposit, has an indicated ore resource of 3 million mt, with a nickel grade of 0.98% and a copper grade of 0.9%, translating to a nickel metal content of 29,500 mt and a copper metal content of 27,100 mt. It also has an inferred ore resource of 5.8 million mt, with a nickel grade of 1.07% and a copper grade of 0.9%, translating to a nickel metal content of 62,400 mt and a copper metal content of 52,500 mt.

From 1990 to 2016, the Selebi North underground mine extracted 13.9 million mt of ore, with a nickel grade of 0.74% and a copper grade of 0.66%.

The main ore deposit was mined from 1980 to 2016, but production was forced to be suspended due to failures in the processing facilities.

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM‘s internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

For any inquiries or to learn more information, please contact: lemonzhao@smm.cn

For more information on how to access our research reports, please contact:service.en@smm.cn

Related News

14 hours ago

"Premier Li Qiang Leads State Council Meeting on Enhancing Effective Investment, Boosting Economic Growth"

Premier Li Qiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council to study policy measures for promoting effective investment. The meeting noted that promoting effective investment plays an important role in stabilizing economic growth and strengthening momentum for development. It is necessary to innovate and improve policy measures, and intensify efforts to enhance the efficiency of utilizing funds such as central budget investments, ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, local government special bonds, and new-type policy-based financial instruments. In conjunction with formulating and implementing the 15th Five-Year Plan

14 hours ago

"Guided by Xi Jinping Thought, Implement 20th CPC Congress Spirit, Apply New Development Philosophy...

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the plenary sessions of the Party’s 20th Central Committee, fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy, strengthen top-level design, build computing power interconnection nodes oriented toward national hub periods, major strategic regions, and key industries, establish a system of computing power interconnection nodes, improve the efficiency and service level of public computing power resources, and promote high-quality development of computing power.

14 hours ago

Indirect Iran-US Nuclear Talks in Muscat Show Progress, Omani FM Mediates Tense but Efficient Discussions

After intensive indirect consultations, the new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Muscat, the capital of Oman, has achieved phased progress. It is reported that during this round of talks, the Iranian and US delegations did not meet directly. Instead, Omani Foreign Minister Badr acted as an intermediary, conveying a series of core proposals, strategic concerns, and policy positions to the other side. The atmosphere at the talks was tense yet efficient. According to preliminary on-site assessments, although both sides continue to negotiate over specific terms, they have reached a consensus on the key objective of "continuing dialogue."

14 hours ago