Prospect Resources (ASX: PSC) is stepping up its push to unlock the growth potential of the Mumbezhi Copper Project in Zambia, with an expanded drilling campaign targeting both additional resources and the confidence needed to move the project toward development studies. Zambia is one of Africa's largest copper producers, and the metal's essential role in power grids, electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure keeps it at the centre of the global energy transition.

In the company's latest project update, Resource Development Manager James Winch provided further detail from site at Mumbezhi, taking investors through the progress of the Phase 3 program, the emerging geological model at Nyungu Central, and exploration results from Sharamba and Nyungu South.

The Phase 3 program has now been increased to 22,200 metres, with almost 12,000 metres completed and drilling advancing beyond the halfway mark. The campaign is currently around borehole 53, with drilling continuing at Nyungu Central and across a series of regional targets.

A key change to the program has been the addition of 6,000 metres of infill diamond drilling at Nyungu Central. Infill drilling tightens hole spacing within a known deposit, the standard route to upgrading tonnes into higher-confidence resource categories that can carry study work. That work is directly tied to the company's development plans, with Prospect planning a Scoping Study, the first and most preliminary stage of mining project evaluation, in the fourth quarter of 2026 and targeting its results for the first quarter of 2027.

The strategy is effectively running on two tracks: raising confidence in the tonnes already identified at Nyungu Central while continuing to evaluate whether the deposit is larger than the current resource suggests. Both objectives are being pursued in parallel as drilling moves through the second half of the expanded program.

Recent results have provided encouragement on the second front. At Nyungu Central, Phase 3 drilling has returned broad copper intersections outside the existing Mineral Resource boundary, including 44 metres at 0.60% copper and 17 metres at 0.57% copper. Intercepts beyond a modelled resource boundary are the kind of result that can feed future resource updates, and the results are helping demonstrate orebody continuity beyond the previously modelled extent, with follow-up drilling now testing how far the mineralisation extends.

Prospect believes the drilling is also beginning to reveal something important about the architecture of the orebody. A sheath-fold structure has now been identified extending around 140 metres beyond the existing Mineral Resources at Nyungu Central. Follow-up drilling is testing whether that structure could host further mineralisation and add sizeable tonnes to the potential pit inventory.

The company is also looking well beyond the central deposit. A further 5,000 metres of drilling is planned around Nyungu Central, including resource expansion work at Nyungu West and Nyungu South, while around 6,000 metres is allocated to regional targets including Sharamba, Kabikupa, Chipimpa and Kamafamba.

At Sharamba, the first drilling has identified sulphide-mineralised graphitic schist containing visible pyrite and chalcopyrite, a copper sulphide mineral and among the most common sources of the metal, underscoring the potential of the target. Prospect has fast-tracked the first two holes to Intertek in Perth for analysis, with a rapid turnaround expected to help determine the significance and potential of what has been identified to date.

Prospect's May 2026 resource update put Mumbezhi at 208.1 million tonnes at 0.42% copper, or 0.49% copper equivalent, containing around 877,000 tonnes of copper. Nearly 35% of the resource was classified as Indicated, providing the foundation for the current infill campaign and future studies.

With drilling now advancing across the main Nyungu deposits, a new extension identified beyond the conceptual pit shell, and regional targets being tested for the first time, the next stage at Mumbezhi centres on establishing how much additional mineralisation and confidence the program can deliver ahead of the planned 2027 Scoping Study.