TIDMHUM
RNS Number : 1645T
Hummingbird Resources PLC
02 July 2018
Hummingbird Resources plc / Ticker: HUM / Index: AIM / Sector:
Mining
Hummingbird Resources plc
("Hummingbird" or the "Company")
Commencement of Exploration Drilling Campaign and Results of
Komana East Underground Study
Hummingbird Resources plc ('Hummingbird' or 'the Company') is
pleased to announce the start of an exploration drill campaign on
its mining permit in Mali and provide an update of the results of a
study on the underground potential at Komana East, below the open
pit Yanfolila Gold Mine, carried out by DRA Projects (Pty) LD
('DRA').
Highlights
-- The new exploration drilling is targeting conversion of
Resources to Reserves, extending the mine life at Yanfolila;
-- Four rigs are on site and will be drilling over 50,000m
across six existing deposits on the mining permit, all in close
proximity to the Yanfolila processing plant;
-- Komana East Underground Study shows potential for an economic
underground mine with 113,000 ozs of producible gold in addition to
the existing mine plan;
-- Operations are continuing on schedule, at the Yanfolila Gold
Mine, and mining has commenced at Komana West
Murray Paterson, VP Geology, said:
"I am extremely pleased that, after thorough preparation, drill
rigs are mobilised and the campaign is under way. The drilling is
aiming primarily for the conversion of existing Resources to
Reserves targeting an expected extension to Yanfolila's mine life.
We have a number of mineable deposits already proven up as
Resources and this programme is about converting those ounces into
the mine plan for Yanfolila.
"The Company has also significantly benefited from the arrival
of Dr Colin Porter, a structural geologist with extensive
experience in gold exploration in West Africa, as Exploration
Manager on-site."
Exploration Programme
The exploration drill strategy is focused on infilling the
currently defined Resources at the six deposits in the 2.2 Mozs
Resource base. By targeting these known Resources it is expected
that the current mine life will ultimately be extended beyond 10
years and at certain stages in the life of mine plan, improve the
grade delivered to the process plant. This could result in higher
annual production levels and therefore improve projected annual
free cash flow.
The exploration drilling program will include the following
work:
Komana West
Due to a new geological interpretation the exploration drilling
programme will now commence at Komana West, 3km West of the process
plant. The new interpretation will be testing for open pitable down
dip extensions of the high grade bonanza zones that have not been
previously followed up. Additionally, the strike extent to the
north of the current pit area, where the main North-South
mineralised zone is covered by a lateritic plateau, will be tested
having not been drilled by Gold Fields (the previous Project owner)
previously. This area was extensively mined by local artisanal
workers giving some indication that gold mineralisation continues
northwards for approximately 1km from the current pit limit,
offering an exciting opportunity to expand known Resources. Both
targets, if successful, can be quickly developed and brought into
the mine plan, providing higher grade oxide Resources, which will
allow the mill to operate at higher productivity for longer in the
mine life. To the south of Komana West, an additional target has
been identified within 200m of the pit that will also be
tested.
Approx. 5,000m of RC and Diamond drilling will be carried
out.
Guirin West
Due to its close proximity to the process plant (under 2km) and
current haul road infrastructure, Guirin West will be targeted to
quickly define further oxide Resources that will supplement the
fresh ore being mined from Komana East. The current Resource
estimate (of 70kozs) for Guirin West is restricted to the shallow
oxide and transitional zones which has limited the amount of
economic in-pit Resources defined by a previous pit
optimisation.
This year's drilling programme at Guirin West will be two-fold.
Firstly, to target along the strike extension to the two main
mineralised zones, and secondly, to target the down dip continuity
into the fresh rock of the higher-grade zones. Drilling will be
carried on a 20x20m spaced pattern to move the current Resources
into Measured and Indicated Resource. It is expected these
Resources will be added to the mine plan, as geotechnical and
metallurgical test work has already been carried out, and moved
into Reserves. Existing infrastructure will be used for expected
quick extraction.
Approx. 10,000m of RC drilling is planned.
Gonka
Gonka, 5km from the process plant, presents a unique opportunity
for the Company to substantially increase mine life and improve the
mill feed grade through the later years of the current mine plan.
The bulk of this year's drill budget will be focused on Gonka,
concentrating on converting as much of the 300kozs of Inferred
Resources to Measured and Indicated with particular emphasis on the
mineral Resources currently shown to be economic from the 2016 DRA
open pit and underground scoping study. The DRA Reserves study
demonstrated that there exists economic Resources within an open
pit (approx., 92 kozs @ 2.3g/t) and underground (approx., 77 kozs @
4.5g/t- diluted). A recent re-logging and structural interpretation
exercise at Gonka has assisted in obtaining a better understanding
on the controls to mineralisation. Using a phased approach to
drilling, the in-pit Resources will be drilled out first before
commencing the deeper drilling targeting the underground Resources.
Further and substantial Reserve and Resource growth is considered
to exist at Gonka down dip of the current known Resources, as the
last line of holes drilled by Gold Fields all ended in economic
mineralisation, all less than 300m below surface and over a strike
extent of more than 300m long.
Approx. 20,000m of RC & Diamond drilling is planned.
Komana East
Located along the same high grade structure as Gonka, Komana
East, which is currently being mined, will be drilled as part of a
focused plan to develop the existing high grade Resources beneath
the current final open pit design into an underground operation in
the future. The majority of the ex-pit high grade Resources (76
kozs) are currently classified as Indicated with only 37 kozs as
Inferred. A recently commissioned underground scoping study by DRA,
has shown that the high grade Resources under the pit at Komana
East are economically viable by underground extraction. The results
of this study are presented below. An exploration targeting
exercise was carried out at Komana East that identified three new
areas of high grade mineralisation potentially suitable for
underground extraction; these are down plunge and along strike to
the north of the current Underground Resources. Only if time
permits will these targets be drilled in this year's drilling
programme.
Approx. 5,000m of drilling is required to convert the Inferred
Resources to Indicated.
Sanioumale West
Along strike of Guirin West, the Sanioumale West deposit has
been drilled by Gold Fields and Hummingbird. Due to the potential
mine plan at the time (2014/2015) only oxide and transitional
Resources were defined and reported by Hummingbird in its Resource
statement despite Gold Fields having drilled and defined in excess
of 100 kozs (2.08g/t) of fresh rock Resources in addition to the
reported oxide Resources. In total there exists over 250 kozs of
mineral Resources at Sanioumale West making it one of the largest
deposits at Komana.
Drilling this year will target the high grade extensions into
the fresh rock and improve the confidence of the currently defined
Indicated Resources within the Oxide and Transition zone.
Preliminary pit optimisations that were carried out in 2014/2015
demonstrated that over 67 kozs (out of 138 kozs) within the oxide
zone are contained with an economic pit shell at $1,100/oz. More
in-pit Resources will be delineated as the fresh rock Resources are
included in the optimisations for the first time in the mine
life.
Approx. 10,000m of RC and Diamond drilling is planned.
Sanioumale East
Located along strike to the north of Komana East and Gonka,
Sanioumale East lies along the high grade Sankarani shear zone.
Like Guirin West and Sanioumale West, Sanioumale East has only been
drill tested into the Oxide and Transition zone (60m deep) where
over 70 kozs (3.04g/t) have been defined. Preliminary pit
optimisations (@$1,100oz) were carried out in 2014/2015 and
demonstrated that 37 kozs @ 3.0 g/t could be extracted by open pit
mining. A review of the Resource model and the previous drilling
shows that the mineralisation is open to the north and down dip,
with a promising intersection of 2m @ 15.1g/t intersected in one of
the very few diamond holes drilled in the fresh rock.
The majority of this year's drilling program at Sanioumale East
will be to improve the confidence of the in-pit Indicated Resources
and drilling the high grade zones into the fresh rock.
Approx. 10,000m of RC and Diamond drilling is planned.
2018 Komana East Underground Study Results
DRA of South Africa were commissioned in January 2018 to carry
out an underground study of the Komana East ex-pit mineral
Resources to assess the economic viability of these Resources by
underground extraction.
A mining break even cut-off grade of 1.7g/t was calculated and
used the mining stope optimiser software program with the following
Resources beneath the current pit were considered as economic.
Please click below to see image of the pit and Resources.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1645T_1-2018-7-1.pdf
During the mine design process, five options were identified and
tested. Resulting in option 2 (see image link and mining schedule
below) producing the best financial result with an IRR of 43% with
over 113,000 ozs produced. To improve the IRR of option 2, the
portal position can be re-located to the base of the pit, which
would have a number of benefits to the operation. The decrease in
the initial development metres resulting in a much shorter decline
being the main benefit and potential significant improvement when
the next study is completed.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1645T_1-2018-7-1.pdf
The mining schedule for Option 2 is shown in the table below,
the schedule still considers the current higher portal position and
uses only the currently Resources (Inferred and Indicated). Any new
Resources delineated this year along strike or down dip will add
and further improve the planned production from underground at
Komana East.
Option 2 annual mining schedule
Unit Ave Total Year 1 Year Year Year
2 3 4
1 299 268
Total tonnes tonnes 455 160 557 436 209 434 362 327
1 018 262
Ore tonnes tonnes 180 54 615 352 266 348 719 581
Waste tonnes tonnes 281 275 105 942 83 943 85 643 5 746
Gold ounces ounces 113 002 4 951 44 204 42 020 21 826
Gold grade g/t 3.45 2.82 3.90 3.75 2.59
Development metres metres 9 231 2 570 3 152 3115 394
Yanfolila Gold Mine Update
Hummingbird also confirms that at Yanfolila initial ground works
have been completed at Komana West and mining there is under way.
Production is tracking our forecast and the Company plans to
publish its production figures for Q2 later this month.
**ENDS**
For further information please visit
www.hummingbirdresources.co.uk or contact:
Daniel Betts, Hummingbird Resources plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7409
CEO 6660
Thomas Hill,
FD
Robert Monro,
IR
James Spinney Strand Hanson Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7409
Ritchie Balmer 3494
James Bellman Nominated Adviser
-------------------------- ----------------------
Martin Davison Canaccord Genuity Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7523
James Asensio Broker 8000
-------------------------- ----------------------
Gordon Poole Camarco Tel: +44 (0) 20 3 757
Owen Roberts 4980
James Crothers Financial PR/IR
-------------------------- ----------------------
Notes to Editors:
Hummingbird Resources (AIM: HUM) is a leading gold production,
development and exploration company. The Company has two core gold
projects, the Yanfolila Gold Mine in Mali and the Dugbe Gold
Project in Liberia.
Yanfolila produced its first gold pour on time and budget in
December 2017 and is expected to produce approximately 107,000oz
gold/year on average over the Life of Mine. Yanfolila holds a
pre-production commencing Probable Reserves of 709,800oz @ 3.14g/t,
total Resources of 1.8Moz of gold and an additional 390,700oz of
non-compliant exploration potential.
The Dugbe Gold Project has Resources currently totalling 4.2Moz
of gold and a completed NI 43-101 compliant PEA on the project
showing a 29% IRR and US$186m NPV at a US$1,300 gold price.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
DRLFKDDPKBKBQOK
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 02, 2018 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Hummingbird Resources (LSE:HUM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Hummingbird Resources (LSE:HUM)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024