ABN 23
108 161 593
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Ground×Floor, 8×Colin×Street
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West Perth××WA××6005
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Tel:×+61×8×9324×1177
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Fax:×+61×8×9324×2171
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Email:×info@mirabela.com.au
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PROVEN
AND PROBABLE RESERVE FOR SANTA RITA
PERTH, AUSTRALIA Mirabela Nickel
Limited (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) is pleased to announce the first Proven and
Probable Reserve for Santa Rita as follows:
Proven and Probable Reserve – 84mt grading 0.61% Ni
Contained nickel – 508,000t (1.1MM lb)
Strip ratio – 7.96:1
Weighted average recovery – 69.4% Ni
“With over half a million tonnes of contained nickel, Santa Rita
now has the world’s third largest open-cut nickel sulphide reserve after
BHP Billiton’s Mt Keith deposit and Vale’s Voisey’s Bay
deposit. And we are still finding more,” said Mirabela Nickel
Managing Director Nick Poll. “This is a remarkable achievement for a
Company that listed in 2004 and discovered the Santa Rita deposit two months
later,” he said.
The Reserve estimate is based upon the Potential Mill Feed Resource
Estimate announced in November 2007 as follows:
Measured and Indicated Resource – 90mt grading
0.60% Ni
Inferred Resource – 10.7mt grading 0.60% Ni
Strip ratio – 7.7:1
The Reserve estimate cannot include the 10.7mt of Inferred Resource and
therefore uses a smaller pit design based only upon the Measured and Indicated
Resource. The Company has already completed additional drilling to
upgrade the Inferred Resource to Indicated status and assays are expected over
the next four weeks. Upon receipt of these results, the Reserve estimate
is expected to be upgraded to a larger pit broadly in line with that used in
the Potential Mill Feed Resource Estimate.
“While we are pleased with this maiden Reserve estimate, we see
this as an intermediate step for the growing Santa Rita deposit,” said Mr
Poll. “We have already completed drilling out the Inferred Resource
and core logging is consistent with expectations, so this is expected to
provide an early addition to the Reserve. There is also great exploration
potential for additional resource in the Southern zone, so we expect to
continue adding to the Reserve, particularly over the next six months,”
he said.
Equity financing was completed in June, 2007 and the Company has cash
reserves of about US$150m. A debt financing facility for up to $260m was
mandated to BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse in January, 2008. It is expected
that the debt facility will be ready for drawdown in mid 2008.
Advanced negotiations are underway to sell the concentrate product to a
smelter. At the same time, the Company is finalizing a scoping study to
build a smelter at Santa Rita and is expected to announce the results of this
work shortly.
The conversion of resources to reserves (as defined by the Canadian NI
43-101 and Australian JORC mining codes) requires detailed estimates of
economic and physical parameters for mining. The resultant average mining
costs (US$ per tonne of material) are as follows:
Operating cost – $1.17/t
Capital allowance – $0.14/t
Total mining cost – $1.31/t
The Reserve estimate is based on a mining rate of 4.6mtpa and a nickel
price of US$7/lb as used for the November 2007 resource estimate and the NI
43-101 report currently lodged on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the Company’s
profile.
These mining costs are similar to the previous costs used for the
November 2007 pit optimization studies (US$1.34/t). Both the mining cost
and the capital allowance are based on a long term exchange rate of R$2.00 to
the US dollar.
The detailed analysis carried out for the Reserve estimate will be
included in an updated Santa Rita NI 43.101 report that will be published
within the next 45 days.
Background
Mirabela Nickel is listed on the Australian and Toronto stock exchanges. With an in-pit
Indicated Resource of 90mt at 0.60% Ni, Santa Rita is the largest greenfields
nickel sulphide discovery worldwide in the last 12 years and the largest nickel
sulphide deposit in Latin America.
Exploration is underway to determine underground mining potential below 500m
deep, as mineralization appears to continue well below current drilling.
Construction of a nickel sulphide concentrator commenced in November
2007 and is progressing well. The plant is expected to produce 18,500t a year
of nickel in a sulphide concentrate from one open-cut mine starting from mid
2009. At this rate of production the project is expected to have a mine
life of at least 18 years. Studies are underway to increase nickel
production to 25,000t a year.
Nick Poll
Managing Director
Contact details
Australia contact:
Toronto contact
(media):
Nick Poll, Managing
Director
Eric Tang, Porter Novelli
Telephone: +61 8 9324
1177
Telephone: +1 (416) 422-7200
nickp@mirabela.com.au
eric.tang@porternovelli.com
www.mirabela.com.au
The
information in this report that relates to mine scheduling studies, ore
reserve and mining costs estimation is based on information compiled by Carlos
Guzman who is a professional Mining Engineer and Project Manager with NCL
Brasil and a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and
Metallurgy and is a Qualified Person in accordance with NI 43-101. Carlos
Guzman is a consultant to Mirabela Nickel Limited. Mr. Guzman consents to the
inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and
context in which it appears.
All
other technical information in this report has been reviewed by Nicholas Poll,
who is a Member of the Australasian
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Nicholas Poll is the Managing Director of the
Company. Nicholas Poll consents to the
inclusion
in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context
in which it appears.
Caution
Regarding Forward Looking Statements: The
forward-looking statements made in this announcement are based on
assumptions
and judgments of management regarding future events and results. Such
forward-looking statements, including
but
not limited to those with respect to resource targets or the development of a
mine and/or a smelter at Santa Rita and the
Company's
capital expenditures and estimated future production involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties, and other
factors
which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company
to be materially different from any
anticipated
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Such
factors
include, among others, the actual market prices of nickel, the actual results
of current exploration, the actual results of
future
mining, processing and development activities, changes in project parameters as
plans continue to be evaluated, as well
as those factors disclosed in the Company’s filed documents.
***
Issued
by
Purple
Communications
Level
3, 28 Kings Park Road, WEST
PERTH WA 6005
Ph:
08 9485 1254 Fax: 08 6263 0455
purple@purplecom.com.au