RNS Number : 3015C
Gippsland Limited
01 September 2008
Gippsland Limited ('Gippsland' or 'the Company')
ABU DABBAB TANTALUM-TIN PROJECT
Doubling of Ore Reserves from 14.60 to 30.24 million tonnes
Gippsland Limited [ASX/AIM: GIP, DB: GIX] is pleased to release the new Ore Reserve statement for the Company's Egyptian Abu Dabbab tantalum-tin project.
Abu Dabbab Ore Reserves have now increased from 14.60 million tonnes to 30.24 million tonnes, grading 255g/t Ta2O5 and 0.109% Sn, an overall 107% increase in total Ore Reserves.
The new Ore Reserves were determined following the highly successful reverse circulation (RC) and
diamond drilling programme, details of which were announced on 14 July 2008, which resulted
in the upgrade of a substantial portion of the Indicated and Inferred Resources to the higher Indicated
and Measured categories. This upgrade saw the combined Indicated and Measured
Resources increase by 30% from 25.0 million tonnes to 32.5 million tonnes with the total Mineral
Resources expanding to 44.5 million tonnes, an increase of 11%.
Executive Chairman of Gippsland, Jack Telford commented, 'The doubling of the Abu
Dabbab Ore Reserves from 14.6 million tonnes to more than 30 million tonnes graphically
illustrates the quality of this world scale asset. This massive increase in the project's Ore
Reserves plus the attractive new waste : ore ratio of 0.826 : 1, will undoubtedly
provide the global tantalum market, investors and project financiers with increased
confidence in the project which is set to become a dominant player in the global tantalum
supply chain.'
The new optimised pit design includes only Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources with all Inferred Resources located below the current pit floor. There is no internal dilution due to the even distribution of the mineralisation within the wireframe but an allowance for 5% dilution at a zero tantalum and tin grade has been included around the margins of the deposit. Further details of this Ore Reserve statement are provided in Appendix 1 below.
RJ (Jack) Telford
Executive Chairman
Gippsland Limited
www.gippslandltd.com
For further information please contact:
Appendix 1
The new Ore Reserve statement derived from an updated mineral resource estimation (Table 1), which included the recently completed RC and diamond drilling, is summarised in Table 2 below.
Table 1: Abu Dabbab Mineral Resources update July 2008 (100g/t Ta2O5 cut-off)
|
Category
|
Million tonnes
|
Ta2O5 (g/t)
|
Sn %
|
|
Measured Resource
|
15.2
|
290
|
0.143
|
|
Indicated Resource
|
17.3
|
250
|
0.078
|
|
Inferred Resource
|
12.0
|
200
|
0.030
|
|
TOTAL
|
44.5
|
250
|
0.090
|
Note: Numbers in table may not correlate exactly due to rounding
The above resource update was successful in converting a large proportion of the previous Inferred Resources to the higher category Indicated Resources. The Indicated and Measured Resources now total 32.5 million tonnes with a total Mineral Resources of 44.5 million tonnes.
A number of Whittle open pit optimization runs were completed on the wireframe constrained Mineral Resources using a range of tin prices to test the sensitivity of the optimisation. The pit optimisation showed little sensitivity to tin price. The tantalum price used in the optimisation is determined by an Off-take Agreement, the terms of which stipulate that the price is confidential.
The optimal pit shell contained an undiluted mineral resource of 29.09 million tonnes grading 270g/t Ta2O5 and 0.113% Sn, with 22.8 million tonnes of waste. From this Whittle shell, the revised open pit mine design included nil ore loss and 5% dilution at nil grade at a production rate of 2 million tonnes per year. There were no Inferred Resources contained in the open pit mine design.
Table 2: Abu Dabbab Ore Reserves, as at August 2008
|
Category
|
Million tonnes
|
Ta2O5 (g/t)
|
Sn (%)
|
|
Proved Ore Reserve
|
15.201
|
260
|
0.133
|
|
Probable Ore Reserve
|
15.038
|
250
|
0.084
|
|
Total Proved & Probable Ore Reserve
|
30.240
|
255
|
0.109
|
Note: Numbers in table may not correlate exactly due to rounding
The cut-off grade used in the determination of ore and waste blocks in the pit design was derived from detailed mining and metallurgical studies contained within an updated December 2007 Detailed Feasibility Study.
The Ore Reserve was converted from the total Mineral Resource and some additional mineral resources remain outside of the designed pit limits and hence are additional to the Ore Reserves. These include the following:
Table 3: Remaining Mineral Resources exclusive of the Ore Reserve
|
Category
|
Million tonnes
|
Ta2O5 (g/t)
|
Sn (%)
|
|
Measured Resources
|
0.012
|
290
|
0.115
|
|
Indicated Resources
|
2.971
|
230
|
0.047
|
|
Inferred Resources
|
10.532
|
210
|
0.032
|
|
Total Mineral Resources
|
13.515
|
220
|
0.035
|
Note: Numbers in table may not correlate exactly due to rounding
Note:
In accordance with Listing Rule 5.6 of the Australian Stock Exchange Limited and Part 2 of the AIM Guidance Notes for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies, the information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves is based on a geological model compiled by Dr John Chisholm and converted to an Ore Reserve by Mr John Dunlop.
Mr Dunlop is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy and Chairman of the Minerals Industry Consultants Association. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer and the principal of mining engineering consultants John S Dunlop & Associates Pty Ltd. Mr Dunlop is a Non-executive Director of Gippsland Ltd.
Dr Chisholm is a Fellow of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Dr Chisholm is an Executive Director and Chief Geologist of
Gippsland Ltd.
Both Dr Chisholm and Mr Dunlop have sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activities undertaken to qualify as Competent Persons as defined in the 2004 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Dr Chisholm and Mr Dunlop consent to the inclusion of their reports in this release to the ASX, LSE-AIM and to the general public, based on their information in the form and context in which it appears.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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