Matuka is an advanced copper exploration project in the Central Province of Zambia, held under Large-Scale Exploration Licence 34992-HQ-LEL (granted April 2024, 45.39 km²), one of three adjacent licences held by Iimba Enterprises Ltd and advanced in joint venture with Jimbe Minerals. The project sits on the boundary of the Mkushi and Kapiri Mposhi Districts, approximately 10 km north-west of the operating Mkushi Copper Mine, with year-round access from the T2 tarred highway.
Modern, systematic exploration — 3,612 detailed soil samples, 50 line-km of induced polarisation, 150 line-km of ground magnetics and 80 line-km of radiometrics — has defined a 3.3 km ENE-striking copper anomaly with coincident zinc and lead, peaking at 887 ppm Cu in soils, sitting directly over chargeable, conductive IP responses within a magnetic-low shear zone.
First-pass diamond drilling has confirmed the discovery: seven of eight holes (1,749.6 m) intersected copper mineralisation — chalcopyrite with pyrite in disseminations, veins and along foliation in altered, sheared gneiss and schist. Only 1.2 km of the 3.3 km trend has been drill-tested to date.
Ten Kilometres from an Operating Copper Mine
The project straddles the boundary of the Mkushi and Kapiri Mposhi Districts, 34 km north-east of Kapiri Mposhi town and 35 km south-west of Mkushi town. The operating Mkushi Copper Mine — 31.6 Mt at 0.6% Cu — lies just 10 km to the south-east, validating the copper endowment of the district.
Access is excellent: the T2 Kapiri Mposhi–Nakonde tarred highway with a branch onto the D209 gravel road delivers year-round, all-season access to the licence — a significant logistical advantage for drilling and any future development.
Shear-Hosted Copper in the Irumide Belt
Matuka lies at the south-western end of the Mesoproterozoic Irumide Belt, a northeast-trending fold-and-thrust belt. The licence is underlain by the Mkushi Gneiss Formation — banded and porphyroblastic gneisses intruded by granites, aplites and pegmatites along NE-trending shear zones — overlain by schists of the Muva Supergroup. A copper–zinc occurrence within the tenement was mapped by the Zambian Geological Survey.
Ground magnetics show the copper anomaly is confined to a magnetic-low shear corridor cross-cut by NW and NE faults, while radiometrics reveal elevated potassium over the trend — the signature of hydrothermal alteration associated with the mineralising system. Copper occurs as chalcopyrite with chlorite alteration in schist and silicification in gneiss.
A 3.3 km Copper Trend, Defined by Four Independent Datasets
Seven of Eight Holes Hit Copper
The maiden drilling programme tested coincident soil-geochemical and IP anomalies with eight diamond drillholes totalling 1,749.6 m. Seven intersected copper mineralisation — chalcopyrite occurring with pyrite as disseminations, veins, along foliation planes and as massive blebs on fractures — with appreciable associated zinc. Massive pyrite–pyrrhotite was intersected below the main zone, and drill core was assayed by ALS for multi-element analysis.
Critically, mineralisation has been confirmed along only 1.2 km of the 3.3 km anomaly. The remaining 2.1 km of strike — including drill targets originally generated by African Eagle Resources but never tested — represents immediate, well-defined upside.
Technical Documentation — Available Under NDA
Drill logs, ALS assay certificates, the complete geophysical datasets (IP, magnetics, radiometrics) and the historical African Eagle exploration database are made available to qualified investors through our secure data room following execution of a confidentiality agreement.
Private investors: the portfolio is open to private participation — see the Investor Centre.