Commencement of 2021 Exploration Campaign

Chesterfield Resources Plc / EPIC: CHF / Market: LSE / Sector: Mining

12 April 2021

Chesterfield announces commencement of 2021 exploration campaign

Chesterfield Resources is pleased to announce that it has commenced its 2021 mineral exploration campaign in Cyprus. The programme is to search for additional tonnage of copper, gold, silver and zinc after high grade intercepts were assayed in February.

-      Enlarged and integrated 2021 exploration campaign underway

-      Gravity survey has commenced on five main target areas, with approximately 800 survey points planned over 5 km²

-      AMT survey has commenced on three main target areas, with approximately 250 survey points planned over 2.25 km²

-      Geological and engineering team now on site

Said Martin French, Executive Chairman, "Despite the challenges posed by Covid travel restrictions, we are pleased to report that we have got our integrated 2021 exploration programme underway and running to schedule.  Our geophysics contractors from Spain entered the country and underwent quarantine procedures, while our geological and engineering team arrived last week on one of the first post-quarantine flights to arrive in Cyprus.

Late last year we discovered unusually high, ore grade, mineralisation on two targets. In addition to strong copper grades, both targets yielded surprisingly good grades of gold at 3 g/t, as well as strong showings of silver and zinc. The focus of this year's enlarged programme is to discover the sources of this material and so additional tonnage of ore grade deposits. We will be keeping the market informed with good news flow on the campaign well into the summer."

2021 integrated exploration campaign commences

Target definition and drill-testing is planned for targets Evlim, Hillside and Kin Valley as part of the 2021 field programme, which has now commenced.  Target vectoring work, including AMT geophysics, percussion drilling and downhole electromagnetic ("EM") and gravimetric ("gravity") geophysics, followed by diamond drilling are planned to follow up on the successful results at these three priority target areas, in addition to other highly ranked targets that warrant drill-testing.

In late 2020 the company encountered two VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphides) deposits with intersections of 11.6m and 16.6m at targets Evlim and Hillside. These intersections included very high grade polymetallic material, which in both cases had been sheared off by faults. This implies that further tonnage of ore grade material is likely to have been deposited nearby. In addition, the drill programme encountered native copper at target Evlim, which also implies a source VMS deposit close by.

The 2021 programme will be the first time the company will be using gravity surveys on the project. The survey measures minute changes in the earth's gravitational pull and has to be finely calibrated to the exact altitude of the survey measuring device. It provides a means of calculating the density property of subsurface materials. In this instance, massive sulphide material is typically much denser than the lavas or sedimentary rocks around it and so gravity surveys can detect large massive sulphide bodies. This will be a large survey over five target areas, covering a total of 5 km², and comprising some 800 individual survey readings.

The company will be further extending its AMT (Audio-Magnetotellurics) surveys this year from those conducted in 2020. An AMT survey works by amplifying and measuring variations in electrical charges that already exist naturally in the earth's crust, from an accumulation of lightening strikes globally. AMT is particularly suited to shallower mineral surveys, such as Chesterfield's exploration project in Cyprus, and can also provide a useful indication of the depth at which mineralised deposits may occur. This year's AMT survey will be larger than last year's, comprising approximately 250 stations on the company's three primary target areas, covering ground totalling around 2.25 km².

A percussion drilling campaign to facilitate a downhole EM (electromagnetic) survey is also planned. The company's technical team will combine all three geophysical survey techniques, down-hole EM, gravity and AMT to produce coincident data to help identify target areas more likely to host mineral deposits. Areas where such anomalies overlap will be considered high priority drill targets as they could indicate a dense and conductive body such as a large tonnage VMS deposit. This information will be used to vector a diamond drill programme to commence in May of approximately 2,000 metres.

About Chesterfield Resources 

Chesterfield Resources is a copper, gold, zinc, silver exploration company active in Cyprus, where it holds the largest mineral exploration licence area of any operator on the island. Polymetal International, the FTSE100 mining group, recently announced it had taken a 23% strategic investment in Chesterfield via a placing of new shares, and has appointed a director to the board.

Cyprus is regarded as a high quality exploration location. It is a member of the EU, and its legal system is based on English common law. An opportunity exists because there has been minimal exploration activity on the island in the last 46 years since the invasion by Turkey in 1974 put a halt to what had been a very active mining industry. 

Since that time, exploration technology and geological knowledge has improved significantly. The company is exploring for VMS (Volcanognic Massive Sulphide) deposits, which typically occur in stacks and clusters. Historically only those deposits which were visible from surface have been mined. It is believed that many more deposits remain undiscovered buried near surface, and the company is using modern techniques to locate them. 

While copper is the main exploration target, it is noteworthy that gold was not historically exploited in Cyprus as its price was pegged to just $35 per ounce when the mining industry was active in the 1960s and 1970s (less than 50 times today's price). Gold has been encountered in several locations in the exploration target area and is an important part of the exploration objective. 

The exploration team is led by senior geologists: Neil O'Brien, formally Head of Exploration, Lundin Mining, Dave Cliff, previously Head of Exploration Europe, Rio Tinto, and Mike Parker who previously worked for First Quantum mining for 20 years.

The current focus of exploration is in the Troodos West group of licences belonging to the company, with around 30 defined targets in an area measuring 10km by 10km. The objective is to discover several VMS deposits in close proximity to each other to create a mining project with a centralised processing unit. 

The company announced high-grade results from its late season 2020 drilling campaign. Drilling encountered strong grades of copper, gold, silver and zinc.  A new 2021 exploration campaign has just commenced, searching for increased tonnage.  This is an integrated campaign. Diamond drilling will be preceded by gravity and AMT geophysics, as well as percussion drilling to facilitate a down-hole EM programme.

The company is also appraising new business opportunities within the sector, with a strategy to also expand by acquiring further copper exploration opportunities.

Chesterfield Resources is committed to world-class environmental standards in all of its operations to mine copper, which is essential to developing clean technology projects worldwide. The company hopes to develop industry and opportunities for the benefit of the Republic of Cyprus. 

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

**ENDS**

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