Blue Pearl Triples Endako Mine's Molybdenum Estimate 2007-04-17 16:23 (New York)
By Rob Delaney
April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Blue Pearl Mining Ltd., the metal
producer that is the best performer on Canada's main stock index
in the past year, tripled its estimate of molybdenum resources
contained in a British Columbia mine. The shares rose.
The Endako deposit has about 283 million pounds of the
copper byproduct that strengthens steel, Blue Pearl said today in
a statement, citing Wardrop Engineering Inc. in Vancouver. The
mine was expected to have 80 million pounds in a smaller study by
Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates in 2005, Blue Pearl said.
The 2005 survey ``only looked at resources in three pits at
Endako and didn't look around them,'' Wayne Cheveldayoff,
spokesman for Toronto-based Blue Pearl, said in a telephone
interview. ``We've done more drilling in the meantime.''
Blue Pearl aims to boost reserves to take advantage of a 25
percent rise in global molybdenum prices in the past year. The
rise has helped other miners of the metal used in oil pipelines
and tools, such as Moly Mines Ltd., based in Perth, Australia.
Moly Mines shares have more than doubled in the past month.
After completing a new mining plan for Endako, Wardrop will
estimate the deposit's total molybdenum reserves, or the amount
of recoverable metal, with a molybdenum price assumption of $10 a
pound, the company said. That's up from $3.50 a pound used in the
2005 assessment, the company said.
Shares Rise
Blue Pearl shares rose 25 cents, or 1.5 percent, to C$17.30
at 4:20 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading, after earlier
reaching $17.87. The shares have increased more than fourfold in
the past year.
Global molybdenum demand will rise this year by at least 4
percent to 426.4 million pounds from 410 million pounds in 2006,
Blue Pearl Chief Executive Officer Kevin Loughrey said in a March
27 interview. Higher prices will allow Blue Pearl to increase the
amount of reserves it can profitably mine beyond the 742 million
pounds it already has identified, Loughrey said.
--Editor: Orland. |
