Bid target Afferro Mining (LON:AFF) has unveiled a major upgrade to the resource at its flagship iron ore project at Nkout in Cameroon.
The direct shipping ore (DSO) and high grade saphrolite indicated resource rises by 156% to 64.3 mln tonnes at a grade of 54.5% iron.
Most of the increase was in the 45% to 55% Fe content range, where tonnage has jumped by 429% to 44.5mt (million tonnes) at an average grade of 51.5% Fe.
Metallurgical testing has also suggested beneficiation will enable the newly classified resources, all of which have iron content of greater than 45%, to be upgraded to a premium grade material.
The company, which last week said it was backing “in-principle” an offer from IMIC (LON:IMIC) that values it at US$190mln (£126mln) or 120p a share, added that a further 85.7Mt of oxidised banded iron formation had also been re-classified as an indicated resource.
Luis da Silva, Afferro’s chief executive said: "The objective of MRE5 was to promote a substantial tonnage of oxidised resource to the Indicated status in anticipation of the Nkout PFS later in the year.”
“The increased DSO and saprolite components of the resource, considered in conjunction with the potential for a strategic partner to unlock port and rail infrastructure, have further advanced Nkout and leave it well placed as a significant asset for the Cameroon mining industry."
The new resource estimate was prepared by consultant SRK and based on a metal price of USD1.4/dry metric tonne unit for magnetite fines.
No comments:
Post a Comment