(ShareCast News) - Harvest Minerals updated the market on progress at the Maximus Prospect, part of its Arapua Fertilizer Project, located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais on Monday.The AIM-traded company said a number of work streams were being actively pursued at Maximus.The first was an application for a trial mining permit, which was now pending confirmation from the Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral.As a closing stage in the approval process, the DNPM is required to physically inspect the site and Harvest was now finalising the scheduling of the inspection to coincide with the completion of the civil and infrastructure works.It was expected to be concluded this month.Secondly, the second drilling programme at the Maximus prospect was recently completed.The board said the programme aimed to increase the size of the current resource to support an increased mine life and production rate and define the full extent of the mineralisation.A total of 39 air core holes were drilled for 771.05m, with an average thickness of 19.8m.The majority of the holes were drilled to the east of the current resource, whilst a further 10 holes were drilled to test the extent of the mineralisation over the Maximus prospect, including four holes in a kimberlite which had previously shown elevated P2O5 and K2O values from auger sampling.The drill core was currently being split and sampled and would be sent for analysis within the next week, with the initial results expected by mid-January 2017.Harvest said the civil and infrastructure work has progressed well and was now expected to be complete by mid-November.During construction, Harvest elected to increase the size of the storage pads to enable more material to be mined, processed and stored.To keep within the planned timeframe, an additional excavator and more haulage trucks were mobilised.In addition, some of the topsoil was removed from the open pit areas and a 16 tonne bulk sample was removed from four sites.Harvest's third area of work was the agronomic testing, and it confirmed on Monday it received outstanding results from Geosol Environmental Laboratory and the Campo Agronomic Laboratory.It said the two samples were split into different size fractions to simulate different product sizes, and the results confirmed the material was inside the MAPA specifications for a 'remineraliser'.Furthermore, petrographic analysis also confirmed there was no free silica in the product, which is significant, as free silica is considered a health hazard if inhaled during application.Based on the results, Harvest has started further agronomic testwork and growth tests with two different laboratories and a major coffee producer in the region.· "We continue to make very good progress at Maximus," said executive chairman Brian McMaster."The civil and infrastructure work has advanced according to plan and once the DNPM have been to site, we expect to receive the trial mining permit and commence mining before the end of the year."McMaster said the agronomic test work was continuing to confirm the suitability of the product and the company was now able to start the growth tests as the final part of product registration."Progress is being made rapidly and continues to exceed the company's expectations."
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