Shares in Tivan Ltd (ASX: TVN) are trading higher after the company said it had discovered high-grade copper and gold mineralisation at its Bacau and Ossu projects in Timor Leste.
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Early stage results
The company said in a statement to the ASX on Friday that grades of up to 17.4% copper and 38.1 grams per tonne of gold were returned from assays of 12 rock chip samples collected.
High-grade cobalt at up to 0.45% was also returned from the assays.
The company said the results align with historic exploration results recorded by the previous holders of the concession, "providing additional confidence in the projects' prospectivity''.
The results are from the first survey by Tivan's geology team, the company said.
The company explained further:
The Baucau and Ossu Projects are located 123km east of the capital of Timor-Leste, Dili, along established transport corridors. Timor-Leste, situated in the southern Outer Banda Arc, is a geologically complex region where tectonic interactions between the Australian and Eurasian Plates result in significant mineral-rich formations. Despite its promising geological characteristics, Timor-Leste remains significantly underexplored with very limited historical exploration undertaken. The geological setting hosts some of the world's most significant copper-gold deposits including Grasberg (Central Papua, Indonesia), Ok Tedi (Papua New Guinea), Wafi-Golpu (Papua New Guinea) and Pangora (formerly referred to as Bougainville, Papua New Guinea).
The company said the initial results were "outstanding and materially progress the historical record of geology in Timor-Leste''.
Further work in the pipeline
The company added:
Tivan is progressing planning for regional scale on-ground exploration activities in Q2, including further surface sampling and mapping, and is also reviewing existing geophysical datasets and planning to undertake additional geophysical surveys, to support target generation to advance the Projects towards drill targeting.
Tivan said it had acquired the projects in February from Beacon Minerals Ltd (ASX: BCN), which was awarded the licences on April 24 and undertook various fieldwork activities, including geological mapping, stream sediment sampling, rock-chip sampling, channel sampling, and ground geophysics.
The company is now working to progress joint ventures across the Ossu and Bacau projects with state-owned mining company Murak Rai Timor as required under the Timor Leste Mining Code.
Tivan Executive Chair Grant Wilson said regarding the results:
We are very pleased to share these results today, that will resonate deeply in Timor-Leste, particularly the discovery of high-grade gold. Tivan will be working closely with community and stakeholders in the Ossu and Baucau regions in the months ahead to consolidate our social license to operate and to plan forward works. Our local team remains at the forefront of these endeavors, working in close collaboration with ANM, Murak Rai and Instituto de Geociências de Timor-Leste.
Tivan shares were 3.9% higher in early trade at 33.5 cents. The company was valued at $748.4 million.
