An independent resource estimate has added 21% more copper to the producing Lonshi copper oxide deposit in the Democratic Republic of Zaire, reports First Quantum Minerals (FM-T).
The increase reflects a 300-metre extension to the deposit’s strike length and a 65-metre extension to its depth. Prior to the 2002 drill campaign, mineralization had been traced for 800 metres along strike and for 65 metres below surface.
Zimbabwe-based Digital Mine Services puts measured and indicated resources at 7.26 million tonnes grading 4.91% copper, for 356,435 contained tonnes. The previous estimate, which was based on the same cutoff grade, held 295,000 tonnes of the red metal in 5.1 million tonnes, for an average grade of 5.75% copper.
The update also includes an inferred resource of 152,241 tonnes at a grade of 5.07% copper. No such resource had been estimated before.
To date, First Quantum has sunk 187 holes totalling 9,187 metres in the Lonshi deposit. Future drilling will continue to focus on strike and depth extensions, as well as the potential of the primary mineralization.
Also, three holes drilled in the 2002 campaign cut deeper, higher-grading sulphide mineralization. Hole LDD2 ran 11.92% copper over 4 metres; hole LDD3, 7.77% copper over 2 metres; and hole LDD6, 6.95% copper over 5 metres.
Generally, mineralization occurs in an average 15-metre-thick package of weathered Roan clastics and distal units which outcrop on surface and dip to the east at 38 degrees.
First Quantum acquired an 85% stake in Lonshi in mid-2000 and advanced it to production 16 months later. Mined material is being trucked across the border to the company’s nearby Bwana Mkuwba solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plant, at Ndola.
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