11th May 2016 09:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Xtract Resources PLC Wednesday said the mineral resource within the Fair Bridge deposit has been updated and added to the resource covering the wider Manica project in Mozambique, resulting in the amount of potential gold at the operation rising by over 36%.
Xtract hired Minxcon (Pty) Ltd to complete a technical report on the mineral resources lying within the Fair Bridge gold deposit, which lies in the 3990 mining concession at the Manico project. The report will form a key part of the bankable feasibility study for Manica, which Xtract said is "nearing completion".
Adding that updated deposit to the other resources at Manica, the total resource at the project has risen by 36% to 1.3 million ounces from the previous estimate of 923,000 ounces.
Specifically, those 1.3 million ounces lie within 17.3 million tonnes of ore graded at 2.26 grammes of gold per tonne, compared to the previous estimate that it contained 9.5 million tonnes graded at 3.01 grammes.
Importantly, the previous resource estimate was not carried out by Minxcon.
The measured resource has increased by 71% to 500,000 ounces of gold from the previous estimate of only 292,000 ounces, contained in 6.1 million tonnes of ore graded at 2.53 grammes per tonne compared to 2.9 million tonnes graded at 3.14 grammes.
However, the indicated resource fell by 32% to 178,000 ounces from 263,000 ounces. The updated resource is contained in 2.6 million tonnes at 2.16 grammes of gold per tonne compared to the old estimate of 2.7 million tonnes at 3.07 grammes.
Together, the measured and indicated resource has risen by 22% to 8.7 million tonnes of ore graded at 2.42 grammes of gold per tonne to contain 678,000 ounces, compared to the old estimate of 5.6 million tonnes of ore graded at 3.11 grammes of gold to contain 555,000 ounces.
The inferred resource has increased 57% to 8.6 million tonnes graded at 2.1 grammes of gold to contain 579,000 ounces of gold from the old estimate of 24.0 million tonnes at 2.87 grammes of gold containing 368,000 ounces.
"Not only has the gold content increased significantly but the total Measured and Indicated volume available to be mined has also increased by over 56%," said Chief Executive Jan Nelson.
"This creates flexibility from an open-pit perspective, considering our revised mine plan. The significant increase in the Inferred category also shows that the life of mine of the project has the potential to be increased well beyond 12 years with further drilling," he added.
Xtract shares were up 2.8% to 0.185 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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