Mineral exploration company Kula Gold Limited has received formal approval of the grant of the Wozi niobium project tenement in Malawi, 225km north of the capital Lilongwe. The company will commence a field programme to confirm the historic niobium and tantalum trenching results and expand the sampling area, including field mapping and expansion across the tenement with further rock-chip and soil sampling to outline the scale potential of the project.

This work will advance towards a maiden drilling programme later this year, while additional tenure is also under evaluation. Malawi has an international credit rating of B by Fitch’s international credit rating agency and hosts a number of advanced and producing mining projects owned by major mining companies.

The exploration licence comprises EL0822/24, covering a total area of approximately 5.52km2 of igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Precambrian to Lower Palaeozoic Basement of the Mozambique Orogenic Belt within the Malawi Rift Valley System, which forms part of the greater East African Rift Valley System.

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The project area was previously held by Mantra Resources Limited, which undertook exploration on the area in 2007- 2008 and announced results to ASX on 2 August 2007, September 2007 quarterly report and 31 October 2007 under the 2004 edition of the JORC Code. While these announcements may not conform to the requirements of the JORC Code 2012, Kula considers them to be reliable.

Managing director, Ric Dawson comments: “Whilst continuing to advance our robust Mt Palmer gold project, Kula had identified the Wozi niobium project as a very interesting high impact, low-cost niobium opportunity to add to the company’s portfolio. Kula looks forward to quickly advancing the Wozi niobium project towards a maiden drilling programme to see what this exciting new critical minerals project can deliver for shareholders.”