Botswana Copper Licences Update

Botswana Minerals plc (AIM:BMIN; BSE:BMIN) is pleased to provide an update on its AI driven exploration programme over its Copper Licences 548 and 549 in Ngamiland, north west Botswana (the “Licences”). These Licences are part of the Company's 7,074 km² land holding in the north eastern Damara Belt, a region known for its potential to host copper and other important minerals.

The Company is progressing well with its fully funded programme, which aims to identify and rank the most promising exploration targets and identify the best copper prospect for drilling.

Highlights

• Environmental authorisation received for field work.
• Ongoing interpretation of existing and additional data further refines copper targets.
• New analysis of historical cores has identified copper mineralisation.

John Teeling, Chairman of Botswana Minerals, commented:

“I am delighted to advise that we have received environmental authorisation which paves the way for our first field programme on our copper licenses. We continue to make progress towards defining drill sites. Analysis of historical core and the acquisition of further geological and geophysical information has focused attention on what we believe will be our strongest drilling targets.”

Summary

Field programme and next steps

Environmental authorisation has been received for Ngamiland, north-west Botswana, to commence field testing through a soil sampling programme. The Company hopes this programme will progressively and rapidly narrow the identified targets towards drill targets.

The next steps are to:

• Commence targeted soil sampling;
• Integrate sampling results with the historical core, geochemical and geophysical information; and
• Refine and rank the northern targets for drilling.

The sampling programme will be funded from existing cash resources.

The Company’s geologists have examined and re-logged relevant historical drill core. Additional historical technical reports, electromagnetic data and geochemical information have also been recovered and assessed with technical partner Planetary AI using its Xplore platform.

These findings build on the copper occurrences reported earlier and strengthen the basis for selecting targets.

Historical core supports the copper targets

A Competent Person’s Report (“CPR”) dated April 2018 records copper mineralisation in drillhole SHAK0007, within the Company’s current licence area in north-west Botswana. The report described copper associated with haematite–quartz veining and minor pyrite–Chalcopyrite, a copper sulphide mineral, mineralisation in quartz veinlets in shale.

Following assessment of the CPR, the Company matched evidence from a core examination in the same area. The associations support further investigation of hydrothermal systems, in which hot fluids transport and deposit metals.

Further geophysical and geochemical evidence

Further review of historical airborne electromagnetic (“VTEM”) information has identified four conductors within a lens-shaped magnetic feature under investigation. More than one previously selected Xplore target area is spatially associated with a conductor. One conductor extends north from the vicinity of hole SHAK0007 along a corridor identified from the magnetic data.

The CPR and this conductor information were not incorporated into the original Xplore target selection. Their subsequent comparison provides additional support for the targeting rationale. The cause of the conductivity remains unconfirmed.

Newly recovered and digitised historical geochemistry has also identified copper, zinc and associated pathfinder-element anomalies. These data are being integrated with the drill core observations and geophysics to refine exploration priorities.