Major Grade & Value Boost From Ni & Cu Credits

RNS Number : 6544K

Jangada Mines PLC

11 July 2017

 

Jangada Mines plc / EPIC: JAN.L / Market: AIM / Sector: Mining

11 July 2017

 Jangada Mines plc ('Jangada' or the 'Company')

High Value JORC Compliant Nickel & Copper Resource Confirmed

For the Pedra Branca Platinum Group Metals Project

Jangada Mines plc, a natural resources company developing South America's largest and most advanced platinum group metals ('PGM') project, is pleased to announce an updated JORC (2012) compliant Resource estimate, which now includes copper and nickel by-product credits, at the Company's Pedra Branca PGM project ('the Project') in Ceará State, north-eastern Brazil following ongoing work over the last few months.

Overview

·     The updated resource estimate includes nickel ('Ni') and copper ('Cu') credits

o  109 million pounds of Ni and 23 million pounds of Cu contained metal in the resource model grading 0.214% Ni and 0.045% Cu

o  Builds on existing JORC (2012) Compliant Resource of 23Mt at 1.3 g/t (PGMs) containing ~1Moz PGM + Au mineralisation from surface

·     Copper and nickel grades throughout all deposits, including within shallow high-grade oxide zones, which are the focus of the initial low capex, low opex, mine development plan

·     South African nickel and copper by-products typically receive 75%-85% payability

·     28% overall grade improvement from 2.8 g/t PGMs (2.9 g/t Pd Eq) to 3.7 g/t Pd Eq at the Curiu oxide deposit, one of the resources ear-marked for near-term, surface production

·     83% increase in grades, from 1.2 g/t (1.3g/t Pd Eq) to 2.2 g/t Pd Eq, for the oxide surface resources at the Esbarro deposit

·     61% improvement in global PGM grade from 1.28 g/t (1.33 g/t Pd Eq) to 2.14 g/t Pd Eq

·     Curiu and Esbarro oxide surface resources represent easily accessible, ultra-low-cost mining targets, which the Company plans to bring into trial production during 2018

·     Results confirm historically reported resources as estimated by the previous operator, Anglo American Platinum, and demonstrate the additional value of multi element deposits

·     Compiled by GE21 Consultoria Mineral ('GE21'), the estimate, based on sampling results from diamond drill cores, quantifies the Ni and Cu contents of the Project's main deposits, Cedro, Curiu, Esbarro and Trapia, which can be mined and processed at no additional cost

·     At current spot prices, the Ni (US$4.21/lbs) and Cu (US$2.68/lbs) credits add an additional US$521 million to the in-situ value of the currently declared PGM+Au resources at the Project or approximately US$22.6 per tonne

Brian McMaster, Executive Chairman of Jangada said, "When we listed on AIM two weeks ago, I said that we were going to hit the ground running; as this announcement highlights, we are doing just that.  These results, which add nickel and copper credits to the JORC resource, not only confirm the historically reported PGM resources that were estimated by the previous operator, Anglo American Platinum, but they also underscore management's belief that Pedra Branca hosts a high value, multi-commodity resource.  With this in mind, we also continue our efforts in fully quantifying the known occurrence of cobalt, chrome and rhodium in the mineralised package.

"The updated mineral resource now includes 23.138 Mt of ore in the Measured, Indicated and Inferred categories, containing 109 million pounds of nickel and 23 million pounds of copper grading at 0.214% Ni and 0.045% Cu.  At today's spot prices, we estimate the nickel (US$4.21/lb) and copper (US$2.68/lb) credits add an additional US$521 million to the in-situ value of the currently declared PGM+Au resources at the Project.  The significance of the additional nickel and copper credit within the Pedra Branca ore zone is that the incremental value of these elements will off-set the costs of producing PGM and will accrue material profitability upside at no additional cost.  With circa US$35 million having previously been invested in the Project, we always believed Pedra Branca represented a unique opportunity to build a profitable mine, and today's results only strengthen our confidence."

Further Information

Background

The Pedra Branca Project is the largest and most advanced PGM project in South America and currently has a JORC compliant resource of approximately 1 million ounces of PGM+Au.  The Project is located 280 km from the port city of Fortaleza in the northeast of Brazil and holds three mining licenses and 44 exploration licenses over an area of 55,000 ha.

Previous operators have spent more than US$35 million on exploration and development activities, which include 30,000 metres of diamond core drilling, geophysical surveys and metallurgical tests.  The current resources are at surface and are amenable to shallow, open pit mining and conventional processing methods.

Mineral Resource

Block models were developed for each ore zone and the resource was estimated using Ordinary Kriging with the results validated with a comparative Nearest Neighbour estimation.  A 0.3 g/t PGM+Au cut-off grade was applied to the resource estimate, resulting in a global Measured, Indicated and Inferred resource of 23.138 Mt containing 952 koz of PGM+Au at 1.28g/t, 109 Mlbs of Ni at 0.214% and 23 Mlbs of Cu at 0.045% (Table 1).

Table 1: Update Resource Estimate for the Pedra Branca PGM Project.

Total
Zone	Classification	Tonnes (kt)	PGM (g/t)	Pd (g/t)	Pt (g/t)	Au (g/t)	Cu (%)	Ni (%)	PGM (koz)	Pd (koz)	Pt (koz)	Au (koz)
Oxide	Measured	1339	1.230	0.802	0.398	0.030	0.043	0.250	52.9	34.5	17.1	1.3
	Indicated	3836	1.555	0.932	0.584	0.040	0.043	0.227	191.8	114.9	72.0	4.9
	Inferred	3636	1.920	1.133	0.767	0.019	0.040	0.200	224.4	132.5	89.7	2.3
Sub Total		8811	1.656	0.995	0.631	0.030	0.042	0.219	469.1	281.8	178.8	8.5
Transition	Measured	698	1.255	0.831	0.404	0.020	0.052	0.224	28.2	18.6	9.1	0.4
	Indicated	1536	1.307	0.833	0.440	0.033	0.052	0.218	64.5	41.2	21.7	1.6
	Inferred	2182	1.095	0.699	0.371	0.025	0.032	0.189	76.8	49.0	26.0	1.7
Sub Total		4416	1.195	0.767	0.400	0.027	0.042	0.205	169.6	108.9	56.8	3.9
Sulphide	Measured	949	1.482	0.973	0.487	0.022	0.049	0.266	45.2	29.7	14.9	0.7
	Indicated	2586	1.005	0.570	0.396	0.040	0.045	0.223	83.6	47.4	32.9	3.3
	Inferred	6376	0.903	0.471	0.360	0.071	0.051	0.203	185.1	96.6	73.9	14.6
Sub Total		9911	0.985	0.545	0.382	0.058	0.049	0.214	313.9	173.8	121.6	18.5
Grand Total		23138	1.280	0.759	0.480	0.041	0.045	0.214	952.5	564.5	357.3	30.7

Competent Person Statement

The information in this statement which relates to the Mineral Resource is based on information compiled by Mr Bernardo H C Viana who is a geologist and full-time director and owner of GE21 and is registered as a Competent Person with the Australian Institute of Geoscientists.  Mr Viana has sufficient relevant experience to the style of mineralisation to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code (2012).  Mr Viana also meets the requirements of a qualified person under the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.

Cautionary Statements

The reader is cautioned that a Mineral Resource is an estimate only and not a precise and completely accurate calculation, being dependent on the interpretation of the limited information on the location, shape, and the continuity of the occurrence and the available sampling results. Actual mineralisation can be more or less than estimated depending upon the actual geological conditions. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.  No Mineral Reserves are being stated.

* ENDS *

For further information, please visit www.jangadamines.com or contact:

Jangada Mines plc	E: [e-mail]
Strand Hanson Limited (Financial & Nominated Adviser) James Spinney / Ritchie Balmer / Jack Botros	T: [phone]
Beaufort Securities (Broker) Jon Belliss	T: [phone]
St Brides Partners LTD (Financial PR) Isabel de Salis / Olivia Vita	T: [phone]

 

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