Appointment of Feasibility Study Manager

RNS Number : 1832O

Pathfinder Minerals PLC

14 September 2011

 

Embargoed: 0700hrs 14 September 2011

Pathfinder Minerals Plc

("Pathfinder Minerals" or the "Company")

Appointment of Feasibility Study Manager

Pathfinder Minerals Plc, the natural resources company with licences to mine heavy minerals sands in Mozambique, has appointed Wardell Armstrong International Limited as Feasibility Study Manager to assist in the development of the Company's heavy minerals sands assets in Mozambique.

Wardell Armstrong International is a leading international mining consultancy firm, providing a wide range of services for minerals-related projects. It has been appointed to support the technical link between Pathfinder Minerals and the various contractors being appointed by the Company to carry out onsite operational and technical engineering study work throughout the feasibility study development period. The outputs from these works shall lead to compilation of a bankable feasibility study.

 
Wardell Armstrong will be responsible for the scoping of the technical requirements of the study, development of the Study programme and monitoring of its progress and collating the technical deliverables required to produce the Feasibility Study report. The main outputs of the study will be an updated Mineral Resource and new Ore Reserve estimate, determination of the appropriate mining method and metallurgical processing route, identification of the related infrastructure, final product quality and saleable tonnage rate, financial evaluation of the project and an updated environmental and social impact assessment report.

Nick Trew, Chief Executive, commented:

"We have been highly impressed by Wardell Armstrong's technical and geological capabilities which will be instrumental in assisting the Company through the feasibility study phase as we move towards bankable feasibility."

Enquiries:

Pathfinder Minerals Plc

Nick Trew, Chief Executive

Tel. [phone]

Daniel Stewart & Company Plc

Oliver Rigby or James Thomas

Tel: [phone]

M: Communications

Ben Simons or Maria Souvorov

Tel: [phone] /2327

Notes to Editors

About Pathfinder Minerals

Pathfinder Minerals, through a 99.99%-owned subsidiary, has mining concessions covering approximately 32,000 hectares of land on the Indian Ocean coast of the Zambezia province of Mozambique, known to contain the heavy minerals, ilmenite, rutile and zircon.

The licences, known as Naburi and Moebase and formerly held by BHP Billiton, are over land located near the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique. Historical reported mineral resources on the assets are estimated at 2.02 billion tonnes with a 3.55% total heavy mineral content, which is equivalent to approximately 71.7 million tonnes of contained heavy minerals. Confirmatory drilling and metallurgical test work will be required to upgrade the classification of the mineral resources.

Exploration work conducted on the licences from the mid-1980s through to 2002 has identified significant mineralisation. Bulk sampling and metallurgical test work conducted in support of prefeasibility and feasibility studies in the mid-1990s indicates that valuable heavy minerals can be recovered using conventional dredge mining, wet concentration and dry mineral separation processes.

The Company is undertaking a detailed feasibility study with a view to developing a mine for commercial extraction.

www.pathfinderminerals.com 

Heavy Minerals Sands

The more valuable components of a heavy mineral sands deposit include the titanium oxide minerals ilmenite and rutile, and in addition, zircon.  Ilmenite and rutile are used to produce titanium dioxide pigment used in the production of paint, paper, plastic, textiles, rubber and pharmaceutical products. Zircons are commercially mined for the metal zirconium and are used for abrasive and insulating purposes.

About Wardell Armstrong

Wardell Armstrong is a leading multidisciplinary consultancy with specialists in the mining, environment and sustainability, energy and climate change, infrastructure and waste resource management sectors. WA has over 350 professional, technical and administrative staff, based at their Stoke-on-Trent head office and across a network of eleven UK and international offices. The Group provides a wide range of services for minerals-related projects ranging from preliminary exploration planning, through to reserve estimation, mine design and financial appraisal, and to bankable final feasibility study. The Group's staff comprises geologists, geotechnical engineers, hydro-geologists, open pit, surface and underground mining engineers as well as specialists in a wide range of health and safety, environmental and social issues.

www.wardell-armstrong.com

 

END

 

 

APPEAPNDFDSFEFF