Albidon updates Enterprise deposit resource at Munali nickel project
resourceinvestor.com
• The Enterprise resource has been re-estimated with the inclusion of infill drilling of the early stoping levels and additional deep drilling.
• The Indicated and Inferred Resource for the Enterprise Deposit is now 9.12Mt @ 1.23% Ni and 0.9g/t of platinum group metals ('PGM') at a revised cutoff grade of 0.6% Nickel.
• Enterprise contains 112,000 tonnes of Ni and 243,000 ounces of PGM.
• The Indicated portion of the resource has increased to 7.5Mt @ 1.28% Ni and 0.9g/t of PGM.
• The updated resource includes an additional 33 drill holes (15%) or 10,400 metres of additional drilling.
Updated mineral resource estimate for Enterprise nickel deposit
The Munali Nickel Project (100% Albidon) is located approximately 60 kilometres south of Zambia's capital city Lusaka. The Munali Project area comprises the Enterprise Deposit and a number of other nickel prospects around the Munali intrusion, the most advanced of which is the Voyager prospect along strike from Enterprise.
A revised JORC-compliant resource estimate has been prepared by Resource Evaluations Pty Ltd for the Enterprise Deposit including additional drilling completed during the period from April 2006 to July 2007.
Based on revised mining costs and an updated long term Nickel price the cutoff grade for the resource has been reduced from 0.7% Ni to 0.6% Ni to better reflect the size of the zones that can be economically extracted.
Table 1: Enterprise Deposit September 2007 Resource Estimate > 0.6% Ni
Class Tonnes Grade Metal
Ni % Pd g/t Pt g/t PGM g/t Ni T PGM Oz
Indicated 7,540,000 1.3 0.6 0.3 0.9 96,600 209,500
Inferred 1,580,000 1.0 0.5 0.2 0.7 15,400 33,500
Total 9,120,000 1.23 0.6 0.3 0.9 112,000 243,000
The shallow drilling resulted in a substantial increase in confidence in the early stoping levels of the Indicated Resource. A number of additional structures in the upper zones of the resource were also identified with this data now being used for detailed mine planning and incorporated into the revised probable reserve. In addition to the location of the main ore zone, overall the grade in the shallow portion of the resource is slightly higher than previous models have estimated at a comparative cut off grade.
The updated resource includes an additional 33 drill holes or 10,400 metres of additional drilling.
The resource is based on the breccia and massive sulphide zones at the south eastern corner of the Munali Intrusion. The modelled resource extends for over 1 km along strike towards Voyager, and 600m down dip within a continuous structural zone. The Enterprise Deposit has not been fully closed off along strike to the north and down dip.
This resource estimate excludes the Voyager prospect which is currently being estimated and will be reported in the near future. |
