Last checked at 2 Oct 2012 07:00
Gemfields plc ("Gemfields", "the Group" or "the Company")
Gemfields announces positive JORC Code compliant resource and reserve update and underground mining feasibility study for its Kagem emerald mine in Zambia
2 October 2012
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Highlights:
Resource Update
- JORC Code compliant Indicated Mineral Resources of 2.75 million tonnes or
1.0 billion carats of emerald and beryl at 365 carats/tonne
- JORC Code compliant Inferred Mineral Resources of 9,200 tonnes or 223,100
carats of emerald and beryl at 24.5 carats/tonne
Underground mining feasibility study
- Projected 20 year life-of-mine ("LOM") producing approximately 34 million
carats per annum
- Gemfields to commence accelerated underground construction and development
in the FY 2014 -15
- Projected nominal cash flow (no discount rate applied) over the LOM of
approximately USD 855 million
- Robust economics - projected post-tax NPV (at a 10% discount rate) of USD
372 million
- Capital expenditure of USD 55.1 million over the first five years and a
total of USD 113.2 million over a 20 year LOM
- Extensive diamond core-drilling and bulk-sampling work continues throughout
the Kagem mining licence area on the remaining known, but as yet un-proven,
emerald bearing deposits
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Gemfields plc (AIM: "GEM") is pleased to announce the positiveoutcome of the mineral resource estimates ("MRE") and underground feasibilitystudy ("FS") carried out on its 75% owned Kagem mine in Zambia ("Kagem"). TheFS has been prepared by the independent consultant SRK Consulting (UK) Limited("SRK") with a view to evaluating the available resource potential and thefeasibility of extending the current open pit mine into a viable undergroundoperation. The results of the FS strongly support the transition to anunderground mine and provide an indicative LOM of 20 years with robusteconomics.Commenting on the FS and MRE, Ian Harebottle, Gemfields' CEO, said:"Today we have achieved a key milestone in the continual development ofGemfields. The study shows that extending the current open pit mine at Kagemto a large-scale underground operation will be economically enhancing to theCompany and to our shareholders. The study covers only Kagem's existingprincipal pit on the Fwaya-Fwaya belt, which is one of several known emeraldbearing belts available within the Kagem licence area. The study shows thatthe existing pit can be further developed as a high grade, low cost mine withrobust project economics and a rapid payback period. The Company currentlycaries no value for the resource but with today's updated estimate will lookto correct this in due course.
We will now look to accelerate the development and implementation of a large-scale underground project at our flagship operation on the Fwaya-Fwaya belt, while continuing to assess the potential future development of the additional belts available within the greater mining licence area."
SRK has based the FS on the MRE results, which have been reportedaccording to the terms and definitions given in "The 2004 Australasian Codefor Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves aspublished by the Joint Ore Reserves Committee of the Australasian Institute ofMining and Metallurgy, Australian Institute of Geoscientists and MineralsCouncil of Australia" (the "JORC Code"). The JORC Code is a reporting codewhich has been aligned with the Committee for Mineral Reserves InternationalReporting Standards reporting template. Accordingly SRK considers the JORCCode to be an internationally recognised reporting standard, widely adoptedfor market related reporting and financial investments.
Mineral Resources and Reserves
As part of the MRE scope of work SRK reported:
- Indicated Mineral Resources for Kagem (as at August 2012) of 2.75
million tonnes of mineralised ore at a grade of 365 carats of emerald and
beryl (E+B) per tonne of ore (a total of 1.0 billion carats of contained E+B);and - an Inferred Mineral Resource of 9,200 tonnes of mineralised ore
was reported at a grade of 24.5 carats of E+B per tonne of ore for a total of
for 223,100 carats of contained E+B.
Using only the Indicated Mineral Resource Estimates, the FSsupports a Probable Mineral Reserve estimate of 2.35 million tonnes of orecontaining 707 million carats of E+B at an average grade of 301 carats of E+Bper tonne. Table 1 below presents a summary of the Reserves reported inaccordance with the JORC Code. These have been converted from the MineralResources Estimate by the application of the dilution and recovery factorssuggested by SRK in the LOM plan and are based solely on Indicated Resources.The Ore Reserves are contained within those Resources previously stated.Table 1. Probable Mineral Reserves Estimates effective as of August2012 Grade ROM carats/tonnes Total Carats tonnes emerald + beryl (million)
Open pit (DRZ and CRZ) 335,500 310.00 104.00 Development CRZ 491,078 305.00 149.78 DRZ stoping (vertical) 875,585 292.50 256.11 CRZ stoping (flat) 647,456 304.50 197.15 Total Probable Reserves 2,349,619 300.92 707.04
All figures are on a 100% ownership basis
Mine Plan
The rationale for the underground FS is the fact that the amount ofwaste being stripped from the open pit has been increasing in recent years tothe point where an underground operation becomes potentially more costeffective. Studies have confirmed that the most appropriate access option isvia a decline shaft at approximately 15 degrees from the north end of thecurrent open pit. The decline is expected to be 3.5 metres high x 3.5 metreswide and will be driven by hydraulic jumbos supported by diesel loaders and 20tonne trucks. The mine will be developed using a series of strike drivesdriven through the ore body. These drives will provide access to the stopesresulting in early stage production. Ventilation will be provided initially byforcing air into the decline via a fan at the entrance. Thereafter,breakthroughs will be made into the existing workings to form a "throughcircuit" allowing bigger volumes of air. The next stage will be theconstruction of a ventilation shaft that will also provide additional egressto surface.
The FS envisages that the mine will produce 120,000 tonnes per annum of ore to target an annual production rate of 34 million carats of E+B. Underground mining will follow a similar approach to the open pit operation where teams of trained pickers will remove the gemstones that are clearly visible post blasting. Thereafter, the remaining ore will be trucked to the washing plant for sorting and sizing.
The mining schedule produced by SRK for the FS demonstrates aproducing mine life at Kagem of 20 years based on the current IndicatedResource. The mining schedule envisages the mining of 336 thousand tonnes ofore and 19 million tonnes of waste with a stripping ratio of 56:1 over theremaining life of the open pit up to FY 2014-15. After this, production willbe sourced from the underground operation which will produce a further 2million tonnes of ore with 372,000 tonnes of associated waste, yielding a muchimproved waste:ore ratio.Capital ExpenditureCapital costs have been derived principally from planned equipmentrequirements but also include capitalised operating costs for the initialpre-production development and the ongoing capital development costs. Themining equipment capitalisation occurs mainly in the beginning of theunderground operation but also includes some replacement of mining equipmentfor the current open pit which has three years of production remaining beforetransition to the underground operation is complete. In the financial modelaccompanying the FS, mine development is capitalised until the project reachesan ore production rate of 120,000 tonnes per annum. Total capital requirementsfor the life-of-mine are given in Table 2 below.
Table 2. Summary of Project Capital Costs (USD million)
2017- 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2031 TOTALOpen Pit Capex 4.00 3.00 7.0UG Mine Capital Costs 12.16 10.7 4.27 39.6 66.8Processing Plant 2.00 8.00 10.0Sustaining Capital -Plant 0.56 0.62 0.59 0.62 0.61 8.75 11.75Contingency 0.11 0.52 4.15 2.27 0.98 9.68 17.70TOTAL CAPEX 4.67 6.14 24.90 13.59 5.86 58.07 113.2Cash Operating Costs
Table 3 below illustrates open pit and underground operations in terms of total and unit operating costs. According to the results of the FS, the underground operation is significantly cheaper than that of the current open pit. It is also expected to allow greater mining selectivity than the bulk nature of the open pit operation.
Table 3: Cash Operating Costs
Units 2017- (million) 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2031 TOTALOpen Pit Production costs USD 30.04 27.83 16.86 - - - 74.73UG Mine Production costs USD - - - 11.35 13.30 218.43 243.08Administrative costs USD(including Contingency) 5.31 6.13 5.92 6.31 6.16 88.67 118.50TOTAL Operating costs USD 35.35 33.96 22.78 17.66 19.45 307.10 436.31Total Emerald and Beryl carats 32.87 36.25 34.96 35.72 34.56 497.31 671.66Cash Cost per carat USD/carats 1.08 0.94 0.65 0.49 0.56 0.62 0.65Economic Model
SRK has undertaken a detailed financial analysis for the Kagem underground FS. A model has been constructed using all of the production schedules, costs and financial parameters generated as part of the study. The model is expressed in real terms. SRK notes that at a 10% discount rate, pre-tax and post-tax NPVs are USD 579 million and USD 372 million respectively.
The base case price scenario provided by Kagem assumes an averageE+B selling price of USD 2.44 per carat for 2012-13, which increases to USD2.77 per carat for the period 2014 to 2015 followed by a further increase toUSD 3.00 per carat thereafter for the rest of the LOM. This profile is in realterms and results in an average price of USD 2.95 per carat.It is noted that Kagem is presently realising per carat prices wellin excess of the assumptions made in the FS. However, a more conservativeprice profile has been modelled by SRK for the FS, taking into account theprevailing global economic uncertainty. SRK report that at a 10% discount ratethe NPV is approximately zero at an average price of USD 1.00 per carat which,particularly in light of the current average emerald and beryl sales prices,illustrates robust economics.
An Environmental and Social Review of Kagem was undertaken and successfully completed by SRK as part of the FS. The project was found to be in compliance with applicable Zambian environmental laws.
The Company expects to commence accelerated underground construction and development in FY 2014-15.
A copy of the FS and MRE will be available on www.gemfields.co.uk
ENDS
Competent Persons
The "Competent Person" (as such term is defined in the JORC Code)who supervised the preparation of the Mineral Reserve estimates for the KagemProject disclosed in this press release is Mr Michael Beare ACSM CEng BEngMIMMM, Corporate Consultant Mining Engineer at SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd, who isa member of the IMMM, has over 20 years of experience in underground miningand is considered a Competent Person for this purpose.
The Competent Person with overall responsibility for reporting of Mineral Resources is Dr Lucy Roberts, a Senior Resource Geologist at SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd, specialising in all aspects of mineral resource estimation and classification and has eight years' experience in the resource sector.
For further information please contact:
Gemfields dev.shetty@gemfields.co.ukDev Shetty, COO +44 (0)20 7518 3402Canaccord Genuity LimitedNominated Adviser and Joint Broker to GemfieldsTarica Mpinga/Andrew Chubb +44 (0)20 7523 8000Neil Passmore +44 (0)20 7742 4000JP Morgan CazenoveJos Simson/Emily Fenton +44 (0)20 7920 3150Tavistock CommunicationsGLOSSARY of technical terms:
Indicated Mineral Resource - that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics, can be estimated with a level of confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. The estimate is based on detailed and reliable exploration and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that are spaced closely enough for geological and grade continuity to be reasonably assumed.
Inferred Mineral Resource - that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality can be estimated on the basis of geological evidence and limited sampling and reasonably assumed, but not verified, geological and grade continuity. The estimate is based on limited information and sampling gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes.
Mineral Reserve - an economically mineable part of a Measured and/or Indicated Mineral Resource. It includes diluting materials and allowances for losses, which may occur when the material is mined. Appropriate assessments and studies have been carried out, and include consideration of and modification by realistically assumed mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified. Mineral Reserves are subdivided in order of increasing confidence into Probable Ore Reserves and Proved Ore Reserves.
Mineral Resource - a concentration or occurrence of natural, solid,inorganic or fossilized organic material in or on the Earth's crust in suchform and quantity and of such a grade or quality that it has reasonableprospects for economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geologicalcharacteristics and continuity of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated orinterpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge.Probable Mineral Reserve - an economically mineable part ofIndicated Mineral Resource. It includes diluting material and allowances forlosses which may occur when the material is mined. A Probable Ore Reserve hasa lower level of confidence than a Proved Ore Reserve but is of sufficientquality to serve as the basis for a decision on the development of thedeposit.Proved Mineral Reserve - an economically mineable part of aMeasured Mineral Resource. It includes diluting materials and allowances forlosses which may occur when the material is mined. Appropriate assessments andstudies have been carried out, and include consideration of and modificationby realistically assumed mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal,environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments demonstrateat the time of reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified. AProved Ore Reserve represents the highest confidence category of reserveestimate. The style of mineralisation or other factors could mean that ProvedOre Reserves are not achievable in some deposits.
Sulphide - a mineral composed of a chemical compound between a metal and sulphur
t - tonne (=1 million grams)
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