Prospect widens Nyungu copper search after 27m high-grade intercept
Prospect Resources has expanded drilling at Nyungu Central after returning a 27-metre copper intercept outside the existing resource, while maiden drilling at Sharamba confirms a new copper discovery. The results add momentum to Mumbezhi’s growth story, but most Phase 3 assays remain outstanding and no resource update has yet been made.
- 27m at 0.69% copper from 102m at Nyungu Central
- New intercepts sit outside the 154.4Mt Nyungu Central resource
- Phase 3 Nyungu drilling expanded to 13,375m
- Maiden Sharamba drilling confirms copper mineralisation
- Mumbezhi Scoping Study remains scheduled for Q1 2027
Nyungu Central intercepts push beyond existing resource
Prospect Resources Limited (ASX:PSC) has enlarged its Nyungu Central drilling programme after assays returned a broad 27-metre intercept grading 0.69% copper from 102 metres. The result, from hole NCDD033, sits outside the existing Nyungu Central Mineral Resource estimate and extends a south-eastern zone that Prospect says is shaping as a significant growth area.
A second hole, NCDD031, delivered narrower but higher-grade intervals of 5.1 metres at 0.99% copper from 173 metres and 3.8 metres at 0.95% copper from 132 metres. The company says both holes infill mineralisation up-dip and west of earlier drilling, including a previously reported 66-metre interval at 0.42% copper and a 44-metre interval at 0.60% copper. Those earlier results helped establish the continuity of the zone, while the latest holes add further evidence beyond the current resource boundary.
The new drilling is outside Nyungu Central’s May 2026 resource of 154.4 million tonnes at 0.42% copper, or 0.51% copper equivalent, at a 0.2% copper cut-off. The broader Mumbezhi project resource stands at 208.1 million tonnes at 0.42% copper for 877,000 tonnes of contained copper. However, the reported figures are down-hole widths rather than confirmed true widths, and the latest release does not revise either resource estimate.
Phase 3 programme grows as assays queue up
Prospect has added 3,375 metres of extensional diamond drilling at Nyungu Central, taking the target for the Phase 3 programme to 13,375 metres. The extra work will focus on the eastern flank and the northern down-plunge area, where the company says its evolving geological model points to further potential.
Twenty-nine Nyungu Central holes have now been completed for 8,863 metres, but assays for 20 holes remain pending, including 16 priority resource-extension and infill holes. Four diamond rigs are operating across the project, with three at Nyungu Central and one at Kabikupa. At Kabikupa, four of eight planned extensional holes have been completed for 550 metres, with assays still outstanding.
The bottleneck is not drilling but the laboratory queue. Prospect says an industry-wide overload at Zambian commercial laboratories has delayed results, prompting it to redirect resource-relevant samples from Nyungu Central and Kabikupa to Intertek in Kitwe for preparation before air freight to Perth for analysis. The company is also increasing geological staffing to clear the core logging and sampling backlog. Quality-control results were generally satisfactory, although nine certified reference materials showed under-reading and are to be re-assayed.
Sharamba moves from target to copper discovery
At Sharamba, maiden drilling has confirmed copper mineralisation across a prospect described as a more than three-kilometre structural sequence. The first two holes returned 4 metres at 0.25% copper from 154 metres and 7 metres at 0.22% copper from 106 metres. Prospect characterises the grades and widths as modest at this early stage, but says the intersections sit within coincident airborne electromagnetic, geochemical and induced-polarisation anomalies.
Eight Sharamba holes were drilled for 2,358 metres, although one was abandoned because of ground conditions. Assays from the subsequent five holes are pending, meaning the discovery remains an exploration result rather than a defined resource or development asset. One rig is due to move next to Kamafamba and then Chipimpa, extending the regional search beyond the established Nyungu Central and Kabikupa targets.
Scoping Study remains the next major test
Prospect continues to target completion and release of the Mumbezhi Scoping Study in the first quarter of 2027. The study will ultimately need to translate exploration growth into a coherent resource model and economic case, rather than simply accumulate encouraging drill intercepts.
For now, the investment case rests on whether pending assays confirm continuity, whether the new mineralisation can be incorporated into a future resource upgrade, and whether Sharamba develops beyond its initial modest intersections. The next meaningful evidence will come from the assay backlog and the modelling work that follows it.
Bottom Line?
The drilling is expanding the geological story, but the next assay batch will determine whether that story becomes measurable resource growth.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the 20 pending Nyungu Central assays confirm continuity across the expanded extension zone?
- How much of the new mineralisation can ultimately be converted into an updated JORC resource?
- Can Sharamba produce wider or higher-grade intersections across its three-kilometre target sequence?
