Brisbane, June 7, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Discovery Nickel Limited (ASX: DNL) plans to commence its maiden exploration drilling in July on the Maun Copper Project in Botswana after today announcing a 20 million tonne copper resource for the project.
Brisbane-based Discovery said an independent evaluation of historical drilling data at Maun revealed a Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Inferred Resource of 20.1 million tonnes at 1.2% copper - the first JORC resource calculation for the project, located in northwest Botswana.
Analysis of the earlier data - generated during exploration by mining giants Anglo America and BHP Billiton predecessor, Gencor Limited, in the 1980s-1990s - also showed higher than expected indications of silver.
"The JORC-compliant resource for Maun is the first major step towards determining if the project has the potential to support a medium scale copper-silver operation," Discovery's Managing Director, Mr Jeremy Read, said today.
"The definition of the 20 million tonne copper resource provides an excellent platform upon which to build," Mr Read said.
"Drilling will be undertaken to test new geological models not previously applied to the Maun Project that could, potentially, extend sections of the Inferred Resource above 2% copper.
"The exploration program will further define the mineralisation in the G Grid South Prospect - the subject of the Inferred Resource reported today - and extend to the G Grid North Prospect which has the potential for a larger and higher grade copper-silver resource than occurs at G Grid South," he said.
Initial results of analysis of historical data:
- An Inferred Resource of 20.1 million tonnes @ 1.2% copper, at a cut-off of 0.6%, has been defined at the G Grid South Prospect within a 3.2 kilometre strike length of the known 25.5 strike kilometres of copper-silver mineralisation
- Similar grades and tonnages to those already defined are being targeted to extend the Inferred Resource at G Grid South
- The G Grid North Prospect has the potential for the definition of a larger and higher grade copper-silver resource than occurs at G Grid South
- Further work is required at the P Grid prospect where limited drilling to date has delivered results such as 15 metres @ 2.2% copper and 4 metres @ 3.2% copper.
Background:
The Maun Copper Project comprises seven granted prospecting licences covering an area of 6,333 square kilometres within the Kalahari Copper Belt in northwest Botswana.
The most significant occurrences of known copper-silver mineralisation occur at the G and P grids where Discovery has been concentrating the majority of its assessment work.
Previous drilling on the project has defined over 300 strike kilometres of copper-silver mineralisation interpreted as having strong similarities with the giant Zambian copper deposits.
Contact
Jeremy Read
Managing Director, Discovery Nickel Limited
Tel: +61 (0) 7 3218 0202
Mob: +61 (0) 409 484 322
Peter Gill
Field Public Relations
Tel: +61 (0) 8 8234 9555
Mob: +61 (0) 417 784 059
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