Corporate and Operations Update

RNS Number : 6202R

Bushveld Minerals Limited

29 October 2013

 



29 October 2013

Bushveld Minerals Ltd

("Bushveld" or the "Company")

Corporate and Operations Update

Bushveld Minerals Limited (AIM: BMN), a mineral development company focused on iron and tin projects in southern Africa, is pleased to provide an operations and corporate update on its Bushveld Iron Ore and Marble Hall Tin Projects in Limpopo Province, South Africa. 

Highlights:

1.    Corporate Update

1.1.        Obtala & Blackrock Share disposal

·    Obtala and Blackrock reduce their shareholding to below the disclosable levels of 5%

·    Increase in the Company's shareholder base leading from the Obtala and BlackRock disposals and acceptances by Lemur shareholders of the Bushveld bid for Lemur

1.2.        Lemur Bid

·    Bushveld's all share bid for Lemur Resources Limited will close finally on 01 November, 05:00 PM (Australian WST)with no extension

·    Bushveld has to date acquired a controlling interest in Lemur, with a shareholding of 54.16% and allotted shares in Bushveld to Lemur shareholders that accepted the Bushveld offer

2.    Bushveld Iron Ore Project: Increase in strike of P-Q Zone Deposit

·    Strike of the mineralisation of the P-Q Zone increased by 3.7 km onto the adjoining farms Schoonoord 786 LR and Bellevue 808 LR. (an increase of 67% in the total strike length)

-      Drilling on southern extensions of the P-Q mineralisation confirms mineralisation (grade and extent) for an additional 2.3 km

-      Assays of the BV-1 borehole (dating from drilling in 1991) extend known strike of the P-Q Zone by a further 1.4 km southwards

·    Assays being incorporated into a resource model to upgrade the resource and to be published by 30 November 2013

3.    Greenhills Resources: Initial drilling for Marble Hall Tin Project confirms tin presence

·    Initial drilling at the Marble Hall Tin Project confirms the presence of a mineralised breccia including an intersection of 1.39% tin (Sn) over 1.75 m.and 0.88% Sn over 1.00 m

1.           Corporate Update

1.1.        Obtala and Blackrock reduce respective shareholdings in Bushveld

Subsequent to the RNS released by the Company on 10 October 2013 regarding a share price movement, the Company established that the substantial share trading volumes were triggered by the sale of shares held by Obtala Resources Limited and Blackrock.

Notwithstanding the impact of these share trades on the Company's share price, the Company now benefits from increased liquidity and a much wider share ownership. Shareholders above the disclosure threshold of 5% now hold an aggregate 56% of the company, while the ten largest shareholders hold 77.99% of the Company compared to more than 95% prior to the Share disposal.

Commenting on this Fortune Mojapelo, the Company CEO, said, "While disappointed by the manner of the on-market share disposal of the last few weeks, particularly considering the existing orderly market agreement that Obtala signed with the Company, we nonetheless welcome the resultant more diverse and active shareholder base and believe that this will lead to improved liquidity, ensuring a Bushveld share that is more responsive to the positive developments in the Company's projects."

1.2.        Bushveld bid for Lemur Resources Limited

The Bushveld all-share bid for Lemur Resources Limited is set to finally close on 01 November 2013 at 5:00 PM (Australian WST). To date Bushveld has acquired a shareholding of 54.17% in Lemur Resources Limited in the now unconditional bid.

Following the closing of the bid, the Company intends to promptly complete a comprehensive strategic review on Lemur in the coming weeks and will update the market accordingly.

Fortune Mojapelo commented, "Again, we welcome all the Lemur shareholders that accepted the Offer onto the Bushveld register and look forward to working with and for them as we grow our Company into a successful diversified portfolio of attractive assets."

2.           Bushveld Iron Ore Project: P-Q Deposit

Results of drilling of the P-Q Zone on the farms Schoonoord and Bellevue

The assay results received for four boreholes drilled on the recently acquired farms Schoonoord 786 LR and Bellevue 808 LR, confirm the continuity of the P-Q mineralisation for an additional 2.3 km to the south. In addition results from the Company's logging of the borehole BV-1, drilled in 1991 on the farm Bellevue 808 LR by the Council for Geoscience and located 1.4 km further south of borehole SN003 drilled on Schoonoord confirm the continuity of the same mineralisation for a further 1.4 km resulting in an aggregate strike extension of 3.7 km. This represents a 67% increase to the existing strike of 5.5 km on which the current resource of 718 mt is based.

In the BV-1 borehole, the P-Q Zone was intersected at a depth of ~600 m.

All the above boreholes intersected the P-Q mineralisation. These intersections show strong similarities to the previously drilled boreholes on which the current Mineral Resource Estimate is based, thereby reinforcing management's belief in the continuity of the P-Q Zone. These results are expected to be incorporated into an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the P-Q Zone. Summaries of the intersections are presented below.

BHID	BH Depth	Top of P-Q	Base of P-Q	P-Q width* (m)	Avg Fe %	Avg Fe2O3 %	Avg V2O5 %	Avg TiO2 %	Avg P2O5 %	Avg SiO2 %	Avg Al2O3 %
SN01	210.14	137.23	171.74	32.82	30.89	44.19	0.18	10.85	0.07	25.67	10.19
SN02	200.00	113.22	152.00	36.88	27.21	38.92	0.16	9.69	0.06	28.56	12.66
SN03	175.47	109.55	151.65	28.60	33.48	47.89	0.20	9.91	0.06	23.75	10.92
BV-1	2949.5	581.36	618.50	35.32	35.59	46.63	0.19	9.41	0.04	21.33	9.71

*True widths after correcting for a dip of 18˚, and excluding any granite sills.

Note: Average grades exclude granite sills, but include the Ti-magnetite barren parting between the P and Q Ti-magnetite layers. The SN boreholes are numbered from north (SN01) to south (SN03) along strike on the farm Schoonoord, with a spacing of ~500 m between them.

Fortune Mojapelo elaborated on these results, saying: "The results validate our belief in the potential of the Bushveld Iron Ore project to host more than 1 billion tonnes. The significance of the anticipated resource increase lies in the opportunity to grow the scale of the project without increasing the stripping ratios and thus cost of mining. It also presents the opportunity to maintain the current scale of operations envisaged in the scoping study released in April 2013, while lowering the overall costs by mining to shallower depths along longer strike and thereby reducing the stripping ratio."

3.         Greenhills Resources: Marble Hall Tin Project

Results of initial drilling at the Marble Hall Tin Project

Following the acquisition of 50% of the Marble Hall Tin Project (update 26 September 2013), the Company has completed the drilling of three initial boreholes. Two of these boreholes intersected breccia zones (known to host tin mineralisation in the area), and assay results confirm the presence of zones of significant tin mineralisation, with borehole VLK2 containing three mineralised breccia zones. Owing to poor drilling conditions, a third borehole had to be abandoned and did not reach the breccia zone. A summary of the intersections is presented below.

BHID                BH Depth         From (m)          To (m)              Width* (m)        Avg Sn (%)      

VLK1                60.00                27.00                28.06                1.06                  0.12

VLK2                85.30                51.76                53.00                1.24                  0.17

VLK2                85.30                58.30                59.30                1.00                  0.88

VLK2                85.30                64.35                66.10                1.75                  1.39

*      The breccia is subhorizontal in orientation and thus the intersections represent true widths.            

The presence of two intersections bearing significant tin grades (0.88% Sn and 1.39% Sn) in borehole VLK2 increases confidence in the historic data available for the deposit. These historical data showed grades in excess of 1% Sn over as much as 5 m. The Company is awaiting approval of a Section 102 application to include additional farms into the licence area. Following this approval, the Company plans to commence further drilling with the aim of defining a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for the deposit.

Fortune Mojapelo said: "The Marble Hall project presents an opportunity for Bushveld to further grow its tin resource inventory and puts the 50,000 ton contained tin resource inventory well within sights. Being a brownfields project with a historical Pre-Feasibility study completed by Gold Fields in the 1980's already provided us confidence in the project. The above results add to this confidence by confirming the mineralisation levels reported historically. We now look forward to firming these results with further drilling into a JORC-compliant resource and advancing this project along with the Mokopane Tin Project."

Enquiries: [e-mail]

Bushveld Minerals Fortune Mojapelo	[phone]
Fox Davies Jonathan Evans	[phone]
Tavistock Communications Jos Simson/ Nuala Gallagher	[phone]
Tielle Communications Stéphanie Leclercq	[phone]

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

- ENDS -

Notes to the editor

Bushveld Minerals Limited is a mineral development company with a portfolio of iron, tin and coal assets in Southern Africa. The Company owns the Bushveld Iron Ore Project and Mokopane Tin Project, both located on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa. In addition, Bushveld has a controlling 53.67% interest in ASX Lemur Resources that owns the Imaloto coal project in Madagascar.

Bushveld was admitted to the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in March 2012.

 

END

 

 

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