Metals Exploration PLC (AIM:MTL) shares rose 8% to 13.69p after the AIM-listed precious and base metals producer announced it had secured exclusive rights to explore and develop the Batong Buhay porphyry copper-gold project in Northern Luzon, the Philippines.
The company described Batong Buhay as one of the best undeveloped advanced porphyry copper-gold targets in the country, citing significant mineralised widths and grades from historical drilling that it said had de-risked the project’s prospectivity ahead of any modern exploration work.
A porphyry deposit is a large, low-to-moderate grade copper and gold system typically hosted in intrusive rock, and among the most economically significant deposit types in global mining.
Historical drilling at the project’s Dickson deposit returned intercepts including 160.93 metres at 0.92% copper and 0.60 grams per tonne gold, while the adjacent Maalinao North body returned 198.12 metres at 1.15% copper and 0.10 grams per tonne gold, with all historical holes ending in mineralisation.
A non-JORC compliant historical resource at Dickson of 86.9 million tonnes at 0.60% copper and 0.25 grams per tonne gold has been estimated, though this predates modern reporting standards and cannot be relied upon as a current mineral resource.
The zone between Dickson and Maalinao North has never been drill tested, and Metals Exploration said it would assess whether the two centres form a single coalescing mineralised system, which could significantly increase the overall resource envelope.
Approvals from the local indigenous community and support from the Philippine Mining Development Corporation, which holds the exploration permit, are already in place.
Initial geophysical surveys and geological mapping will begin immediately, with a maiden drilling programme anticipated to commence in the second half of 2026.
