27th Jul 2015 07:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shanta Gold Ltd Monday said it has secured an updated mineral resource and reserve report for its flagship New Luika gold mine in Tanzania.
The miner said the JORC-compliant update follows on from its drilling conducted in January across nine holes. Shanta said the update has improved its confidence for the potential to drill underground at the Luika and Bauhinia Creek deposits, which did not previously have a resource.
A JORC estimate is the Australasian code for reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves and is used worldwide as a professional standard for reporting those results.
The total JORC indicated and inferred resource for the New Luika mine now stands at 12.9 million tonnes at 3.2 grammes of gold per tonne, which would lead to production of 1.3 million ounces of gold.
"Today's resource and reserves update for our flagship New Luika Gold Mine increases the level of confidence we have in the long term future of the operation. The Bauhinia Creek and Luika resources remain open at depth, and we are confident that further on-going exploration during the course of a future underground mining operation has good potential to further upgrade and extend the resource base", said Chief Executive Toby Bradbury.
Proven and probable open pit reserves for the project stands at 1.6 million tonnes at 4.8 grammes of gold per tonne to produce a total of 245,000 ounces of gold. That is down from 2.3 million tonnes at 5.1 grammes per tonne for 365,000 ounces.
"The reduction in open pit ounces is largely accounted for in depletion, approximately 36,000 ounces, and displacement to underground of approximately 67,000 ounces," said the company.
"The update for the open pit reserves reflects the redesign of the open pits with a markedly reduced strip ratio for a proportionally much smaller reduction in reserves. The displaced open pit reserves report to underground resources, and we look forward to announcing the underground feasibility study later this quarter," said Bradbury.
Underground indicated resources stand at 2.2 million tonnes at 6.5 grammes of gold per tonne for 475,000 ounces of gold.
"This is a win-win for New Luika as the surface mine benefits from a substantial reduction in operating cost while a potential underground operation gets additional high grade resource," said Bradbury.
Shanta shares were up 3.6% to 5.83 pence per share on Monday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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