Shares in Leederville-based mining company Fox Resources Ltd rose 6.6 per cent on news of a 600 per cent increase to the company's Whundo copper-zinc deposit.
Shares in Leederville-based mining company Fox Resources Ltd rose 6.6 per cent on news of a 600 per cent increase to the company's Whundo copper-zinc deposit.
The company increased its indicated copper resource by 600 per cent to 10,600 tonnes and the zinc resource by 400 per cent to 10,600 tonnes.
Shares in the miner originally surged 13 per cent to a high of $1.70 before pulling back to $1.60 at close of trade, 10c above the previous day's closing price.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Fox Resources Ltd today announced a significant upgrade to the Indicated Resource at its 100 per cent-owned Whundo Copper-Zinc Deposit, located just 12 kilometres from the Company's Radio Hill treatment plant in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
Whundo is a key deposit in Fox's emerging new Whundo Volcanic Massive Sulphide Copper-Zinc Project area. The resource upgrade is based on results from a successful drilling programme that concluded in the December 2006 quarter and the resulting assays.
The original Whundo Indicated Resource, as announced on 12 July 2006, has been significantly upgraded to 10,000 tonnes of contained copper and 10,600 tonnes of contained zinc metal - a 600 per cent and 400 per cent increase respectively. The original Indicated Resource at Whundo stood at 1,700 tonnes of contained copper and 2,560 tonnes of contained zinc metal.
A total of 101 holes have been drilled to define the Whundo deposit, comprising of 1,245 diamond drill metres and 10,770 reverse circulation drill metres. The Indicated Resource has been drilled on 15m x 15m spacings. The increase in resource is attributed to an increase in strike length to the north and mineralisation still remains open since the previous Resource estimate.
Fox's Managing Director, Mr. Don Harper, said today's Whundo Resource upgrade is a further step towards significantly increasing the Company's resource base.
"We remain focused on developing Fox's shallow low cost base metal deposits - a formula that has worked well for us," said Mr Harper. "We are in a very fortunate position to have exposure to minerals such as nickel, copper and zinc at a time of excellent commodity metal prices."
"The Company will maintain its focus on copper and zinc production from West Whundo for now, until we install additional milling capacity at the Radio Hill Mill to treat nickel ore from Radio Hill and Sholl. We have been presented with an excellent opportunity to maintain our cashflow while we strengthen the Company's move into nickel production on the back of increased throughput and nickel recovery," he said.
Mr Harper went on to say that the Company is currently reviewing several milling options and will update the market on it's two revenue stream production strategy. The strategy includes the utilisation of the previously announced Elizabeth Hill mill acquisition which is located only 5km south west of the upgraded Whundo deposit.
EXPLORATION UPDATE
Exploration drilling for the Company is scheduled to re-commence in February 2007 targeting the Razerline nickel deposit and the Zodiac anomaly, which has potential for nickel and is located only 5 kilometres east of Radio Hill mill.
Zodiac consists of four Electromagnetic conductors, each of which is approximately 100 metres in strike length. The other remaining EM targets, namely Sunchaser, Conquest, Bertram and Carver will be tested following the completion of the tenement approval process expected late February 2007.
