Paladin Energy has upgraded the ore estimate at its Langer Heinrich mine in Nambia by 104 per cent to 60,830 tonnes.
Paladin Energy has upgraded the ore estimate at its Langer Heinrich mine in Nambia by 104 per cent to 60,830 tonnes.
The company made the announcement after completing an extensive drilling program across the full extent of the deposit.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange Paladin said, "This work has been highly successful as the upgrade has increased Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources sufficiently to justify the planned Stage 4 expansion, for which the feasibility study is currently underway."
"The resource drilling work has resulted in a significant increase in the Mineral Resources of the Langer Heinrich Deposit," the company said.
"At present, a total of 67,758t of contained U3O8 is now identified in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource categories after depletion for mining.
"The Directors believe a substantial amount of these Inferred Mineral Resources will be able to be converted to Measures and Indicated Resources categories in the future"
See company statement below:
Paladin Energy Ltd is pleased to announce that, following the completion of approximately 37,000m of drilling during 2010, a revised Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimate for the Langer Heinrich Mine (LHM) conforming to both the JORC (2004) guidelines and the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) has now been finalised and the results are reported below at a 250ppm cut off. This drilling programme was initiated to establish a sufficient Mineral Resource base capable of supporting an expansion at LHM from 5.2Mlb U3O8 pa to 10Mlb U3O8 pa with 9Mlb U3O8 derived from expansion of the existing processing plant and 1Mlb U3O8 pa from heap leach operations. This drilling was carried out across the full extent of the deposit. This work has been highly successful as the upgrade has increased Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources sufficiently to justify the planned Stage 4 expansion, for which the feasibility study is currently underway.
Mineral Resources are depleted for mining to 30 June 2010 and include stockpiled material.
Compared to the previous Mineral Resources announced in 2008 the updated 2010 Mineral Resource estimates outlined herein represent the following after depletion for mining:
A 106% increase in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources from 32,858t (72.4Mlb) to 67,758t (149.2Mlb) contained U3O8, after depletion for mining.
A substantial transfer of Inferred Mineral Resources to higher categories resulting in a reduction from 41,557t (91.6Mlb) in 2008 to 10,910t (24.0Mlb) contained U3O8.
A substantial portion of the Mineral Resources are in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource categories, representing 86%, of the overall Mineral Resources up from 44% previously and confirms the very robust nature of the deposit. The infill drilling in all areas of the deposit has shown an excellent conversion rate of Inferred to Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource categories giving confidence that future campaigns will achieve similar results.
COMPARISON OF NEW AND PREVIOUS MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATES
The tables below show the substantial overall increases in Mineral Resources in all Details following this re-estimation, using the same cut off grade as used in the 2008 estimate. Minor local reduction in Mineral Resource grades is a result of a change to the resource variance adjustment based on actual grade control reconciliations. The overall average grade is slightly reduced at 0.056% U3O8.
