Mustang on track to accumulate 200,000-carat inventory for planned initial auction in October
Commissioning of Upgraded Ruby Plant Progressing Well
Sydney, May 31, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Mustang Resources (
ASX:MUS) (GGPLF:OTCMKTS) ("Mustang" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that commissioning of the upgraded processing plant at its Montepuez Ruby Project in Mozambique has been highly successful and processing rates are now ramping up.
Given this excellent progress, Mustang is confident that it will achieve its targeted processing rate of 1,500 tonnes a day within weeks.
During the commissioning process, it was found that a much bigger recycling dam was needed to ensure sustainable water supply for the plant. The water is required to break and wash the clay out of the gravel. The new water recycling dam and plant will be in operation within a fortnight, which will allow the plant to work at full capacity.
The increasing throughput means Mustang is also on track to achieve its target of building a ruby inventory of 200,000 carats ahead of its planned initial auction in October this year. This will provide an opportunity to potentially increase the volume of rubies available for sale in the October auction.
The upgraded plant is designed to achieve a feed/throughput rate of 250 tonnes per hour and Mustang intends to initially operate the plant for one seven-hour shift a day. This would enable the Company to achieve or exceed its daily total processing target, which represents a 580% increase in the throughput rates recorded before the $1 million plant upgrade was undertaken (see Figure 1 in the link below). It also means there is scope for further substantial increases in processing rates by operating additional shifts in the future.
The upgrades to the plant are expected to increase the recovered grades. It is thought that many rubies were not extracted from the clay boulders and the conveyor belts to which they stuck. The conveyor belts were therefore replaced by wet jet pumps and the new larger scrubber has big water jets which break-up all clay boulders and send very clean gravels and stones to the pans.
Mustang has now accumulated a 25,000 tonne stockpile at the Montepuez project sourced from three different pits on Licence 4143L. It also expects to start bulk sampling on its recently acquired Licence 8245L, in which it has a 65 per cent stake, within weeks.
Given the number of artisanal miners operating in this area, which indicate high prospectivity for rubies, and the shallow and high-grade nature of the deposits, this Licence will be a key area of focus in coming months (see Figure 2 in the link below).
Auger Drilling Program & Results
The first phase of the auger drilling program has been completed using a 400m by 200m spacing drill grid over several key areas. The main objective of the phase 1 drilling was to assess the distribution, depth and thickness of gravel horizons within high priority target areas to enable continued evaluation of the near-surface gravels utilising Bushman Jigs and the ongoing Bulk Sampling program.
The auger drilling has demonstrated that licences 4143L and 5030L host extensive gravel deposits that have the potential to generate significant new ruby discoveries. High-priority areas have had additional manual pitting completed within them. The interpreted distribution of gravel horizons greater than 0.5m thickness and test pits completed to date including Pit 21 (Alpha), Pit 224, Pit 117 and the Serafina Pit are shown in Figure 4 (see the link below).
Mustang is taking bulk samples from secondary deposits hosted within alluvial/colluvial gravel (Alpha Pit, Pit 117, Pit FNB, Serafina Pit and Pit 224). The gravel beds are poorly sorted with variably rounded to sub-rounded quartz and lithic fragments, clast supported with a red clay, sandy matrix, sitting on or near a highly weathered biotitic gneiss (as seen in Figure 5 in the link below).
To date, the source of the secondary rubies recovered by Mustang has not been discovered.
Further auger drilling and pitting is proposed in areas not covered by the phase 1 drilling targeting both primary and secondary ruby deposits. The results from these ongoing activities will be announced as they come to hand.
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/02E8FI53
About New Energy Minerals Ltd
New Energy Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXE) (FRA:GGY) is an ASX listed junior mining company, that recently announced the divestment of the Company's Caula vanadium - graphite project and the Montepuez Ruby project in Mozambique.
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