Minbos Resources increases phosphate Resource to 304Mt at 11.5% at Cabinda in Angola

Minbos Resources (ASX: MNB) has defined an Inferred JORC Resource of 6.7 million tonnes at 20.3% phosphorus oxide (P2O5) for the Chivovo deposit and an Inferred JORC Resource of 150 million tonnes at 8.3% phosphorus oxide for the Chibuete deposit at the Cabinda Phosphate project.

Importantly, this increases the overall JORC Resource at Cabinda to 304 million tonnes at 11.5% phosphorus oxide, comprising resources from the Chivovo, Chibuete, Mongo Tando and Chibuete deposits.

Executive chairman Peter Richards said the Cabinda Project can now be benchmarked against other world class phosphate projects and should result in a significant increase in the valuation of Minbos.

“Bayovar, currently being developed by Vale, is a good example of such a project, containing approximately 40 million tonnes of P2O5 versus 35 million tonnes of P2O5 already defined for the Cabinda Project,” he said.

To put this in context, based on a recent corporate transaction, Bayovar has a valuation of over US$1.1 billion.

Richards added that equally as significant is the Feasibility Study for the development of a high grade direct shipping ore operation at Cacata and Chivovo which is underway.

“The 1.5 tonne ore sample for detailed metallurgical testwork obtained via diamond drilling is ready for dispatch and the environmental and port studies are progressing,” he said.

“The company is confident that the very robust financial numbers presented in the CRU Scoping Study will be confirmed and that the project will be fast tracked into production.”


Cabinda

Since November 2010, Minbos has completed about 20,000 metres of aircore drilling across five previously identified deposits that lie within the Cabinda Phosphate licence area and has announced resource estimates for four of the five deposits.

The Cabinda Project covers 200,000 hectares located within an elongated depression between geological faults that run parallel to the Angolan coast, and include identified phosphate resources at Mongo Tando, Cacata, Chibuete, Chivovo and Ueca.

Historic exploration work completed at Cabinda included exploration by Companhia de Fosfatos from 1969 to 1973, and Energo during the 1980’s, when 45,000 metres of drilling outlined phosphate resources at Mongo Tando and Cacata and additional exploration targets.

Coffey Mining confirmed that these prospects reported historical phosphate grades of 10% to 20%, over a number of mineralised beds that  average 14 metres in thickness and carry grades of 10% to 34% phosphate, hosting  potential to contain 333 to 538 million tonnes of phosphate material. Historical metallurgical test work produced a concentrate of 34% to 36% phosphate, with recoveries exceeding 75%.

The projects within the Cabinda Project area all lie within 50 kilometres of the coast and are connected to the Town of Cacongo by newly constructed four lane tar roads, where a facility that will use barges to trans-ship is planned. The area is well served by local roads, electric power, services, and a local workforce. 

The convergence of very favourable local infrastructure provides the Cabinda Project with major capital and operating cost savings that are not available to similar Australian phosphate projects.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/23772/minbos-resources-increases-phosphate-resource-to-304mt-at-115-at-cabinda-in-angola-23772.html