Perth-headquartered exploration company Noronex (ASX: NRX) is bringing in a diamond drilling (DD) rig to fast-track follow-up work at its Fiesta project located in the Kalahari copper belt in Namibia.

The company has received positive assays from Fiesta that have provided further confirmation of significant copper-silver mineralisation in an area 500 metres west of previous intercepts.

The company is finalising the DD rig contract to complete a 2,000m program at Fiesta and surrounding prospects.

Testing previous hole

Noronex initially plans to re-enter a previous hole and extend beneath this intercept to fully test the width and nature of the mineralisation.

This hole will aim to confirm the bedding orientation, the nature of the mineralisation and any structural controls.

Further DD will test extensions of the known mineralisation and target additional extensions using this structural control.

Broad copper-silver intercept

Chief geologist Bruce Hooper said the major 500m step-out has delivered a broad copper-silver intercept among multiple new mineralised intervals at Fiesta.

“Extending the Fiesta mineralisation by over half a kilometre with such impressive copper and silver results right to the end of the hole is a major step forward in defining the potential size of this system,” Mr Hooper said.

“Our next step will be to undertake DD to test the full width and style of mineralisation, as well as seek to further extend the strike, as the system remains completely open to the west.”

Fiesta funding

The campaigns at Fiesta are being funded via an earn-in agreement with South32 (ASX: S32).

Noronex has so far completed a total of 19 reverse circulation drill holes at Fiesta, which is located in the west of the company’s Humpback tenements.

The anomalous intercepts appear to have many similarities to deposits defined in Botswana over 400km to the east, including the Khoemacau copper project (370 million tonnes at 1.77% copper equivalent), owned by mining giant MMG.