Discovery Metals Limited (Discovery Metals or Company) has reported an updated Ore Reserves estimate at the Plutus Open Pit deposit.
According to the company, the estimate has been completed by the independent consultants, Snowden Mining Industry Consultants Pty Ltd, in accordance with the 2004 Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.
Discovery Metals’ Managing Director Brad Sampson says this upgrade to the Plutus Deposit represents another step towards increasing the life and the scale of the Boseto Copper Project.
“As the Plutus Deposit remains open at depth, it also creates additional potential for underground mining and an opportunity to leverage off the recently completed Definitive Feasibility Study for underground mining at Zeta. Discovery Metals is planning to undertake a Scoping Study for underground mining at Plutus in 2013”.
The Plutus Deposit is located in north-western Botswana and is adjacent to the Boseto copper concentrator.
This Plutus Ore Reserves upgrade includes results from 33 additional drill holes that extended copper-silver mineralisation at Plutus to 450 metres below surface. The deposit remains open along strike and at depth.
Importantly, infill drilling confirmed the consistency of copper grades and continuity of mineralisation which provides greater confidence to the robustness of the Ore Reserves at Boseto.
The company also reported assay results from 15 diamond drill holes at the Zeta NE deposit. Zeta NE is located within the Company’s 100% owned prospecting licences in the Kalahari Copperbelt in north-west Botswana and is located approximately 10 kilometres east of the Boseto concentrator and approximately seven kilometres along strike from the Zeta open pit.
“These are outstanding results that demonstrate significant upside on the current Mineral Resources at Zeta NE. Furthermore, they support one of the major value propositions contained in our recently released Target’s Statement, namely that the Mineral Resources at Boseto are expected to continue to grow over time and support mining activities well beyond those defined in our current mine plans,” says Sampson.
The assay results reported in this release are from the first holes drilled as part of an infill program, which began in September 2012.
The results from the 15 diamond drill holes completed on five sections 100 metres apart, over a strike length of approximately 400 metres. The holes were located from the central to north-eastern part of the deposit.
The results from many of the drill holes exceed the average copper grade (1.3%) and thickness (7 metres) of the deposit determined from the initial drilling reported in early 2012 and used for the estimation of the current Mineral Resources.
One hole in particular, GDDD2813 has intersected 54.6 m @ 1.4% Cu and 10 g/t Ag from 9.0 m to 53.6 m, including two narrow zones of less than 0.3% Cu (Figure 5), Discovery Metals’ best intersection in seven years of exploration in the Kalahari Copperbelt.
Drill hole logs indicate that the top of the sulphide zone is about 40 metres vertical depth. The depth of Kalahari sands cover over the mineralisation is approximately five metres in this area. Bornite and chalcocite are the primary copper sulphide minerals at Zeta NE, with minor chalcopyrite. The mineralisation dips at approximately 80 degrees to the north-west and is open at depth.
