17th Apr 2008 12:00
Vedanta Resources PLC17 April 2008 17 April 2008 Announcement of Exploration Success Highlights • Increase in reserves and resources by 28.7 million tonnes containing 4.0 million tonnes of zinc-lead metal, prior to depletion • Increase in mine life by nearly four years • Total reserves and resources now at 232.3 million tonnes containing 27.5 million tonnes of zinc-lead metal • Rampura Agucha mine achieves landmark of crossing 100 million tonnes with certified reserves and resources of 107.3 million tonnes Vedanta Resources plc ("Vedanta") announces that ongoing exploration activitiesat its subsidiary, Hindustan Zinc Limited ("HZL") have yielded significantsuccess with an increase of 28.7 million tonnes to its reserves and resources,prior to a depletion of 5.8 million tonnes in FY 2008. Contained zinc-lead metalhas increased by 4.0 million tonnes, prior to a depletion of 0.6 million tonnesduring the same period. Total reserves and resources at 31 March 2008 were232.3 million tonnes containing 27.5 million tonnes of zinc-lead metal. Thereserves and resources position has been independently reviewed and certified asper JORC standard. The success of exploration has primarily been in the Sindesar Khurd and RampuraAgucha mines. The sustained exploration and aggressive drilling programme atSindesar Khurd mine has successfully augmented the resource base to the currentlevel of 37 million tonnes, making it the second largest ore body in HZL'sportfolio after Rampura Agucha, with potential for further additions, throughongoing exploration. In FY 2008, the drilling programme increased the strikelength, by 300 metres, to 1,600 metres averaging 5.8% zinc, 3.8% lead and215 ppm silver. At Rampura Agucha, 28,000 metres of drilling in 32 holes were carried out tooutline mineralisation below a depth of 550 metres. Of these, 29 holesintersected ore widths with significant grades averaging 15.5% zinc and 2.0%lead. The combined reserves and resources at Rampura Agucha alone have beenaugmented to 107.3 million tonnes at 31 March 2008, achieving the landmark ofcrossing 100 million tonnes in reserves and resources. The group's exploration philosophy has been to replace every tonne of ore minedwith at least one tonne of resource. HZL has dynamically increased itsexploration focus, through a team of 40 geologists employing the latestgeophysical, geochemical and GIS technologies and high speed deep drillingequipment. This has resulted in an addition of 110.7 million tonnes of reservesand resources, before depletion of 22.1 million tonnes, in the period fromApril 2003 to March 2008. For further information, please contact: Sumanth Cidambi [email protected] Director - Investor Relations Tel: +91 22 6646 1531Vedanta Resources plc James Murgatroyd Robin WalkerFinsbury Tel: +44 20 7251 3801 About Vedanta Resources plc Vedanta Resources plc is a London listed FTSE 100 diversified metals and mininggroup. Its principal operations are located throughout India, with furtheroperations in Zambia and Australia. The major metals produced are aluminium,copper, zinc, lead and iron ore. For further information, please visitwww.vedantaresources.com. Disclaimer This press release contains "forward-looking statements" - that is, statementsrelated to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statementsoften address our expected future business and financial performance, and oftencontain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes,""seeks," "should" or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature addressmatters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arisefrom the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London MetalExchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; fromfuture integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters ofnational, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic,business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause ouractual future results to be materially different that those expressed in ourforward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-lookingstatements. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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