Resources round-up: Berkeley, Providence, African Consolidated Resources

Berkeley Mineral Resources, which earlier this year signed a memorandum of understanding with Yunnan Xiangyun Feilong Nonferrous Metal Company, has said that the initial series of tests by Feilong on Berkleley's samples of mine tailings it owns in Kabwe, Zambia, have concluded that the material is processable for lead and zinc using standard Feilong technology. These tests have also shown that the material has processable grades of Indium, Silver, Antimony, Germanium and Copper and as a result Feilong is now proceeding to full assays for all the elements which can be liberated in the Kabwe material. Providence Resources, the oil and gas explorer working in the North Celtic Sea offshore Ireland, has confirmed that is has now received formal notification from ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Ireland that a letter of intent has been signed with Ocean Rig for the Eirik Raude semi-submersible drilling rig. The rig will drill an exploration well in the Frontier exploration licence 3/04, offshore Ireland, with an estimated programme duration of up to six months. The contract is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2013. African Consolidated Resources has unveiled a major upgrade from 513,000 oz to 3.2m oz, of which over 50% is in the measured and indicated (M&I) category at its wholly-owned Pickstone-Peerless gold project in Zimbabwe. This consists of 1.5m open-pittable ounces at 2.0g/t gold (over 1m oz in M&I category) plus 1.7m underground ounces at 4.0g/t gold (with 460,000 ounces in M&I category). The firm expects to begin a bank feasibility study this month, targeting over 100,000 ounces of gold per year.NR