Zone. 215 May 2024 11:30
To announce a significant increase to the Zone II Mineral Resource at the Caijiaying Mine. These additional Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources are located immediately adjacent to the south of Zone III and within the recently approved Mining Licence (See Company Announcement "Issue of New Mining Licence" dated 4th January 2021).
These new resources, which are reported in compliance with The JORC Code, are in addition to the Zone III Mineral Resource currently being mined at the Caijiaying Zinc-Gold deposit. The highlights include:
· 1.49 million tonnes of Zinc Metal (from 0.638 million tonnes)
· 463,000 ounces of Gold (from 164,000 ounces)
· 36.8 million ounces of Silver (from 15.5 million ounces)
The new Zone II Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource estimate comprises 40.7 Mt at 3.7% Zn, 0.9% Pb, 28.4 g/t Ag and 0.4 g/t Au, resulting in total contained metals of approximately 1.49 Mt of zinc metal, 36.Moz of silver metal, and 0.46 Moz of gold metal.
This is an increase of 21.1 Mt (107%) from the previously reported Zone II Mineral Resource of 19.6 Mt at 3.3% Zn, 0.7% Pb, 24.6 g/t Ag and 0.3 g/t Au (Company Annual Report "Results for 2018 and Annual Report and Accounts" dated 30th April 2019).
Regarding the contained metal this is an increase from approximately 0.6 Mt to 1.5 Mt of zinc metal, from 0.14 Mt to 0.38 Mt of lead, from 15.5 Moz to 36.8 Moz of silver and from 0.16 Moz to 0.46 Moz of gold.
The large increase in resources at Zone II is the result of the significantly improved geological understanding of the structural controls on mineralisation, and on mineralogical associations gained from the extensive work over many years, together with a more recent detailed re-logging and assaying review of selected areas within Zone II. As underground access and mining activities progress into 2021, further improvements to the geological model are expected.