Ivanhoe Electric and Saudi Arabian Mining Company Ma'aden Complete First Full Quarter of Exploration Activities in Saudi Arabia - Seite 2
Ivanhoe Electric's subsidiary, Computational Sciences Inc. ("CGI"), utilized its latest inversion software to produce three-dimensional subsurface images that extend to depths of up to 1 km below ground surface. CGI's proprietary software technology includes complex algorithmic codes and artificial intelligence tools that are used to process geophysical data generated by Typhoon. CGI is uniquely capable of rapidly processing and interpreting the large volumes of data created by Typhoon surveys.
CGI's inversion of the chargeability and conductivity data produced by Typhoon across the entirety of the exploration license has ultimately yielded two high priority drill targets.
Earlier survey results disclosed in our news release dated January 9, 2024 had identified three high priority targets south of the Al Amar mine. However, subsequent verification work and Typhoon results has now refined those drill targets to ‘Area B' and ‘Umm Ad Dabah' as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Initial CGI Inversion Results across the Umm Ash Shalahib Exploration License.
The first high priority area is called ‘Area B', an area previously explored by France's Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières ("BRGM") in the 1970s. The BRGM identified several areas at surface with geological alteration and mineralization, including Area B. Our Typhoon survey results correlate very closely with the previous work but extend and expand the results to greater depth, providing an attractive target for follow-up drilling. Area B is an area that also features ancient artisanal vein mining for gold at surface, attesting to the presence of historical near-surface mineralization.
Photo 1. Ancient artisan vein mining near Area B, Umm Ash Shalahib, Saudi Arabia.
The second high priority area is called ‘Umm Ad Dabah', which is located to the north of the Umm Ash Shalahib exploration license at the northern limit of the recently completed survey grid. Previous mapping and drilling by the BRGM in the 1980s had identified an area showing Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide ("VMS") mineralization in their drill holes. The Typhoon survey results show these as both conductivity and chargeability anomalies extending to the northeast and southwest of the surface outcrop and historic drill holes. The altered zone is about 360 m long and consists of very intense epidote-chlorite-actinolite alteration with disseminated iron oxide boxworks, presumably after pyrite.Copper oxides are locally observed in fractures and rock cleavage at surface.