4 Oct 2011 08:44
Regency Mines PLC
('Regency' or the 'Company')
Update
4 October 2011
Regency Mines, the mining exploration and mineral investment company with interests in nickel and other minerals in Western Australia, Queensland, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan, reports on key activities.
Mambare Joint Venture, Papua New Guinea
Previously announced work permit issuance delays in Papua New Guinea and subsequent visa and processing delays in the Philippines have affected driller operations and resulted in disappointing drilling progress, with only 346.75 metres completed by 19th September over 18 holes and weighted average core recovery of 94.7%. Samples from all holes have been delivered to Intertek Laboratories for analysis. Preliminary handheld XRF (x-ray fluorescence) analysis on site has however indicated grades up to levels significantly in excess of those encountered in 2009 drilling on this limited sample base.
All visas but one have now been issued and the scale of drilling operations will now increase as crews are mobilised to site. Training of local rig assistants and geologists' assistants is also being intensified.
Drilling in the immediate future will focus on generating additional core bulk density samples to generate a sufficient dataset of density data and enable the past drilling results to be incorporated into a JORC compliant resource calculation. The planned drill total is for 220 holes to be completed by March, which might be curtailed in the event of delays due to heavy rainfall.
Direct Nickel Pty Ltd ("DNi")
Wintech Group Ltd's (ASX:WTG) general meeting originally convened for 2 September, at which proposals for the acquisition of at least 80% of DNi and a change of name to Direct Nickel Ltd. were to be considered, has been adjourned to 7 October 2011. Upon passage of the resolutions, Regency expects that it would in due course be offered shares equivalent to approximately 7% of the issued capital of Wintech Group Ltd.
Regency last week visited the pilot plant of DNi at the CSIRO premises in Perth. Delivery of a unit necessary for one part of the process is still awaited, but the remaining parts of the plant are now running and undergoing testing.
Bundarra tenements, Queensland
The VTEM (Versatile Time-Domain Electro-Magnetic) survey is finishing at the two copper-gold prospective tenements in Bundarra, central Queensland in which the Company has a 100% interest. The Bundarra properties cover the whole of a granodiorite pluton and its margins, formerly in the years up to 1910 a well-known mining camp with a copper mine and smelter at Mt Orange in the south-west and numerous mineral occurrences and workings around Mt Flora in the north-east.
The completed survey comprised approximately 1,081 line kilometres on line spacings of 100m and 200m. Results will be announced when available.
Oracle Coalfields plc ("Oracle")(AIM:ORCP)
On 3 October 2011 Oracle announced the appointment of Citigroup Global Markets Ltd as its financial advisor on a comprehensive funding solution for the development of the Thar Coal Project in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Regency currently has an 11.02% shareholding in Oracle.
For further information contact:
Regency Mines PLC Andrew Bell, Chairman 0207 402 4580
Sandra Spencer, Public and
Investor Relations 0207 402 4580
Nominated Adviser
Religare Capital Markets Peter Trevelyan-Clark/Ben Jeynes 020 7444 0800
Broker
Simple Investments Ltd Nick Emerson 01483 413500
Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on its website www.regency-mines.com.
Note: DNi is a private company incorporated in Australia. Itis currently demonstrating a potentially revolutionary process with attractive economics for treating laterite nickel ores (the "Direct Nickel Process" or the "Process").
The Direct Nickel Process is a hydrometallurgical process for treating nickel laterites with unprecedented efficiency and environmental benefits. It is designed to operate with tank leaching at atmospheric pressure, and is the first to treat both limonite and saprolite ores with a single flowsheet. The Process recycles its novel reagents, offers high cobalt and nickel recoveries with short residence time, produces mixed hydroxide precipitates ("MHP") or sulphide concentrate, has substantially lower capital and operating costs than competing processes and is fully scalable.