LONDON (Alliance News) - Sable Mining Africa Ltd Wednesday announced an increase in its resource at the Nimba Iron Ore Project in Guinea following expansion exploration drilling on a limited area of its Plateau 3 site.
The AIM-listed iron-ore exploration mining company said it has now increased its total JORC compliant resource to 181.8 million tonnes at a grade of 58.8% iron estimated at a cut-off grade of 40%.
The company also said it has increased its indicated resources on site to 148.4 million tonnes from 134.4 million tonnes, with the updated resource including data from an additional 36 diamond drill holes.
Sable said the updated resource further demonstrates the potential upside to the robust fundamentals demonstrated in its recent Preliminary Feasibility Study which was based on a first Probable Reserve of 53.96 million tonnes at a grade of 61.6% iron based on its August 2013 JORC resource of 135.5 million tonnes at 59.4% iron.
The company said that metallurgical sampling is on-going and shipment of an initial roughly 4,000 kilograms of sample ore from its Plateau 2 site has been sent to its testing site in Australia.
Sable said its drill rig is now repositioned on its Plateau 3 site for the purpose of generating additional material for metallurgical testwork and progressing the company's marketing study for the site.
The company added that reverse circulation infill drilling has now been completed on its Plateaux 2 and 3 areas and samples are also being sent for testing.
"The Sable Mining team continue to drive progress at Nimba as we approach our ultimate goal of achieving commercial iron ore production at the end of 2015," Chief Executive Andrew Groves said in a statement. "We continue to work closely with the governments of the Republic of Guinea and the Republic of Liberia and with their support, we remain focussed on opening up this region as a new development corridor between these two countries."
Sable Mining shares were up 6.2% to 8.34 pence Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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