Ivanhoe Electric and Saudi Arabian Mining Company Ma'aden Complete First Full Quarter of Exploration Activities in Saudi Arabia - Seite 3
Drilling of these two high priority targets is expected to commence before the end of May 2024.
As the survey at Umm Ash Shalahib encompassed the Al Amar Gold-Copper-Zinc Mine site, identification of on-mine or near-mine geological targets is also a priority. As a result, a joint interpretation team has been assigned from the Al Amar mine geology team, Ma'aden, and Ivanhoe Electric to help guide this interpretation.
Joint Venture exploration activities expanding within the Al Amar Belt and to the Wadi Bidah Belt
Typhoon survey work has now moved to the Al Amar Exploration License 11 which is to the immediate north of Umm Ad Dabah and was chosen because the Umm Ad Dabah geophysical anomalies trend onto this license.
In addition, while initial exploration activities have focused on the Al Amar Belt, early exploration work will start in the second quarter at the ‘Gehab' prospect in the Wadi Bidah Belt area located between 220 km and 270 km southeast of Jeddah.
Gehab was identified as an outcropping gossan related to the surface exposure of VMS by the BRGM in their work in the 1970s. Limited drilling was completed but was not expanded beyond the limited surface expression. Gehab is a high priority for Typhoon survey work once the first new generation Typhoon unit arrives in Saudi Arabia. Ahead of that, geological mapping and sampling work will start in the second quarter to provide geological and geochemical data for incorporation into the Typhoon model that will potentially provide significant down dip and strike extension of known surface mineralized exposures.
As the subsequent new generation Typhoon units arrive in Saudi Arabia, they will be deployed to the other high priority areas in the Al Amar Belt where satellite imagery and historical work has identified surface alteration potentially associated with mineralization.
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Figure 2. Map of ~48,500 km2 of exploration land available to the Joint Venture showing the ‘Gehab' prospect and Al Amar area.
Construction completed on the first new generation Typhoon unit ordered by the Joint Venture
The Joint Venture purchased three new generation Typhoon units, the first of which completed acceptance testing at the manufacturing facility in Toulouse, France in March 2024, and is currently en route to Saudi Arabia. The next two new generation units will be completed in the first half of 2024. In the interim, the Joint Venture is currently utilizing two Typhoon units owned by Ivanhoe Electric.