Last checked at 23 Jan 2013 07:00
KEFI MINERALS PLC - Exploration UpdateKEFI MINERALS PLC - Exploration Update
PR Newswire
London, January 22
KEFI Minerals, an AIM-listed gold and copper exploration company with projectsin the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is pleased to announce additional diamond drillresults from the initial drilling programme at the Jibal Qutman Licence and thecommencement of second phase drilling at the Selib North Licence, both projectsas operator of the Company's 40%-owned Gold & Minerals Joint Venture ("G&M")
HIGHLIGHTS
* Diamond Drilling at Jibal Qutman returns encouraging intersections, including 4.5m at 17g/t Au, 12.75m at 3.78g/t Au and 13m at 2.35g/t Au. * Positive results obtained from an initial internal scoping study for an open cut heap leach operation at Jibal Qutman. * Diamond and RC drilling commenced at Selib North to follow up geophysical (IP and SP) and geochemical anomalies.JIBAL QUTMAN
An initial phase of 50 diamond drill holes for 4,569m has been completed at theJibal Qutman prospect. Drilling was designed to test the shallow open cutpotential of the gold mineralisation, which is hosted in a series of quartzveins over a 3km zone.
Gold is hosted in vein sets that dip approximately 20-45° to the east. The veinsets are comprised of massive quartz veins up to 6m width with a halo of lowergrade parallel stringer veins in zones up to 15-30m width either side of themain vein. To date, three separate zones have been trenched and drilled at theJibal Qutman prospect, the Main, South and West Zones.
The best results not reported previously, include:
Hole No From (m) To (m) Interval Au g/t Zone (m) JQD 30 36.00 48.75 12.75 3.78 West Structure JQD 31 71.00 85.00 14.00 0.81 West Structure JQD 37 20.20 29.00 8.80 1.46 South Zone JQD 40 32.00 50.00 18.00 0.70 South Zone JQD 41 17.00 27.00 10.00 3.43 South Zone JQD 42 21.00 23.00 2.00 2.71 South Zone JQD 43 8.50 23.00 14.5 5.45 South Zone Including 8.50 13.00 4.50 17.00 South Zone JQD 45 62.00 75.00 13.00 2.35 South Zone JQD 46 54.00 58.00 4.00 1.35 South Zone JQD 48 90.00 117.00 27.00 0.62 South Zone JQD 49 72.00 77.00 5.00 1.07 South Zone and 111.00 116.00 5.00 1.11 South ZoneDrilling has been performed on initial 100m x 50m and 50m x 25m grids over a600m strike length of the Main Zone and 200m strike lengths of the West andSouth Zones. Drilling has focused on the open cut potential and hence holeshave been drilled to shallow depths, testing the mineralisation to a maximum of80-100m below surface.
The continuity of mineralisation in each zone is excellent and gradedistribution does not display a high nugget effect, and along with mapping andtrench sampling this currently suggests that a drill spacing of 100m x 50m isconsidered sufficient for the estimation of an Inferred Resource, 50m x 50m foran Indicated Resource and 25m x 25m for a Measured Resource.
Within the area drilled to date and also within a conceptual shallow open cutpit shell to 40-60m below surface, a preliminary first pass estimate of acombined mineralised zone of approximately >90,000oz Au can be calculated at anaverage grade of 1.25g/t Au, using a 0.2g/t Au cut-off. This is a verypreliminary estimate only and is not a JORC compliant resource at this stage.
There is very good potential to significantly increase the current drilledresources, as the mineralisation is open along strike, to the north and southin all three zones. Given the aerial extent of the mapped veins in the Licencearea, a target in excess of 200,000oz Au is considered to be a plausibleestimate.
Drilling has been paused to evaluate the potential of the drilled area and toperform further investigations whether a "pilot" heap leach mining operationwould be beneficial at this stage.
Initial internal scoping studies using local labour, power and mining costs,suggest that a "minimum pilot" deposit size, amenable to gold extraction byheap leach, of 80,000oz to 100,000oz at 1.2g/t to 1.3g/t Au would have a cashoperating cost of $640/oz Au, require an estimated $12-14 million of capitalexpenditure and generate a cash operating profit of $80 million over a 4 yearmine life.
Samples of pulverised drill core have been despatched to an external laboratoryfor preliminary metallurgical gold recovery by cyanide leach.
Gold recoveries from four composite pulp samples of quartz vein stylemineralisation attained 54%, 74%, 76% and 90% gold recovery using a 250ppmcyanide solution over a one hour period. These are encouraging results giventhe dilute cyanide and short extraction time. The sample with 54% recovery wasobtained from a high grade sample of 8.9g/t Au and the lower recovery wasprobably due to coarse gold particles, which require a longer extraction timeto be fully recovered in the leaching process.
More extensive metallurgical testwork for Heap Leach processing, includingcolumn leach, to establish optimum grind size and leach times, is currentlybeing designed and will be initiated in H1 2013.
Should the metallurgical testwork attain gold recoveries of 70% or more, a heapleach could be the optimum processing method. Should the gold recovery fallbelow 70%, it may be more economic to extract gold by CIL processes, which oncurrent results, indicates a possible recovery around 75-90% of the gold.
Further drilling to extend the open cut potential along strike, both to thenorth and south in each of the three zones and to infill drill to a minimum of50m x 25m spacings is planned for H1 2013, at which point an Inferred andIndicated Resource is targeted to be announced.
SELIB NORTH
A second phase diamond and RC drilling programme of 2,400m and 1,700mrespectively, is underway. It will test several IP (Induced Polarisation andresistivity) and SP (Self Potential) anomalies identified in the geophysicalsurvey completed in December 2012 and the gold mineralisation intersected inthe first phase diamond drilling at the Camel Hill prospect.
Jeff Rayner, Managing Director of KEFI Minerals, commented:
"The initial phase of diamond drilling at Jibal Qutman has been completed withencouraging early results for an open cut heap leach mining operation. Theseresults have been achieved in just four months since drilling started in midSeptember 2012. Further drilling is planned to extend the gold potential alongstrike in all three zones and to further define the gold recoveries withdetailed metallurgical testwork, in H1 2013 and to possibly commence apre-feasibility study in H2 of 2013."
KEFI Minerals' Strategic Plan in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
İn 2009, KEFI Minerals formed the Gold and Minerals Joint Venture ("G&M") inSaudi Arabia with local Saudi partner Abdul Rahman Saad Al-Rashid & SonsCompany Limited ("ARTAR"), to explore for gold and associated metals in theArabian Shield. To date, the G&M has conducted preliminary regionalreconnaissance and lodged 23 Exploration Licence Applications (ELAs), of which4 have been granted.
The ELAs were initially applied for and granted to ARTAR. Incorporation of G&Mhas been completed and any granted Licences will be transferred into G&M in duecourse.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has instituted policies to encourage mineralsexploration and development and KEFI Minerals supports this priority by servingas the technical partner within G&M. ARTAR also serves this Government policyas the major partner in G&M, which is one of the early movers in the modernresurgence of the Kingdom's minerals sector.
-Ends- Enquiries KEFI MineralsJeffrey Rayner +90 533 928 1913
Fox-Davies Capital
Simon Leathers +44 203 463 5010
Bishopsgate Communications
Nick Rome +44 20 7562 3395
References in this announcement to exploration results and potential have beenapproved for release by Mr. Jeffrey Rayner. Mr Rayner is a geologist and hasmore than 25 years' relevant experience in the field of activity concerned. Heis a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) andhas consented to the inclusion of the material in the form and context in whichit appears.
Further information on KEFI Minerals is available at www.kefi-minerals.com