Orion Minerals Confirms High-Grade Copper Continuity At Okiep In New Drill Hit

**Orion Minerals** (ASX: ORN) has reported a new high-grade copper intercept from Flat Mine East within its Okiep Copper Project in South Africa’s Northern Cape, extending mineralisation 39m down-dip from a previously reported standout result.

The new diamond drill hole returned 3.96m at 4.64% copper, including 0.95m at 14.19% copper from 322.69m down-hole, according to the company’s price-sensitive exploration update.

The intercept sits below hole OFMED157, which previously returned 7.88m at 9.24% copper, including 3.33m at 17.12% copper from 311.26m.

The company said the latest result confirms a high-grade, norite-hosted copper zone continues at depth and remains open, while also supporting its 2026 resource optimisation drilling program in the Flat Mines area.

The practical point is that OFMED158 adds another data point to Orion’s geological model, but the company also flagged that the latest hole has not yet been incorporated into the mineralisation model. It means any near-term effect on the resource shape, grade or tonnage still depends on further drilling and updated modelling.

Flat Mine East Background

Flat Mine East forms part of Orion’s Okiep Copper Project, a broader copper district project covering 703 square kilometres in the Northern Cape.

Within that district, the Flat Mines area is being advanced as a defined development area rather than an early-stage greenfields target.

Orion’s March 2025 Mineral Resource for the Flat Mines deposits was 10.0Mt at 1.3% Cu under JORC 2012 using a 0.7% copper cut-off.

In its FY2025 annual report, Orion separately described the Okiep Flat Mines Area as a lower-capital starter project.

That report said the 2025 DFS outlined a 12-year life-of-mine, with optimisation work under way to improve project outcomes by bringing forward production, reducing capital expenditure and improving mine selectivity.

Drill Result and Program

Orion said the OFMED158 mineralised interval consists mainly of blebby to disseminated bornite and chalcopyrite hosted in norite. In the company’s interpretation, that supports a structural model linking the new intercept to the FME lower zone.

To frame the result, Orion also pointed to nearby holes.

Hole OFMED154 previously returned 78.00m at 1.57% Cu, including 15.00m at 4.80% Cu and 9.27m at 3.01% Cu. Hole OFMED153 returned 49.35m at 5.05% Cu, including 21.66m at 9.41% Cu.

The company said OFMED154 sits 50m along strike east of OFMED153, using those intersections to support a broader continuity case across both strike and depth directions.

This drilling forms part of Orion’s 2026 resource optimisation drilling program at Okiep.

What Comes Next

The next technical milestone is whether Orion converts this and nearby drilling into an updated mineralisation model and then into changes to the resource envelope at Flat Mines.

The company has already said OFMED158 is not yet incorporated into the model, so the immediate task is geological interpretation rather than a direct resource revision.

A second point to watch is the question of thickness and continuity. While OFMED158 extends the zone down-dip and supports Orion’s interpretation that the system remains open at depth, the new intercept is narrower than OFMED157.

That means follow-up drilling still needs to show that high-grade sections are continuous enough, and broad enough, to materially influence optimisation outcomes.

Continuity Matters More Than Width

The OFMED158 intercept adds another data point supporting Orion’s view that a high-grade copper zone at Flat Mine East continues at depth within the Okiep project area.

Even so, the result is narrower than the earlier OFMED157 hit, so the main test now is whether further drilling and modelling convert that continuity into a materially improved resource and stronger project optimisation outcomes.

For now, the most concrete near-term watchpoints at Okiep are more drilling results from Flat Mine East, any updated resource or optimisation work for Flat Mines, and how effectively Orion deploys its existing funding across drilling, studies, and development planning.