MBMI reports resource estimate for Alpha in the Philippines

Vancouver-based junior MBMI Resources (MBM-V) and its partners in the Philippines have been operating the Alpha nickel property on small-scale operating permits since 2006 and have already sold nickel laterite material to Asian consumers.

The company has shipped about 154,000 dry metric tonnes of nickel material with an average grade of 1.86% nickel and 18.5% iron to industrial clients in Asia and about 81,000 dry metric tonnes of 1.51% nickel and 14.5% iron have been stockpiled.

MBMI’s goal of becoming a major supplier of high-grade nickel products to primary industrial consumers in Asia advanced today with a new resource estimate on the Alpha property, about 660 km southwest of Manila in the central region of the island province of Palwan.

The resource estimate is based only on nickel material contained in the 60-hectare small-scale mining permitted (SSMO) section of the 3,200-hectare Alpha property, and does not include the material MBMI has already sold to the rest of Asia.

The estimate was based on 207 holes drilled in 2006 and 2007 to define the extent of laterization and mineralization within the three SSMO areas and not the entire property.

Using a cut-off grade of 0.5% nickel, Alpha’s three SSMO areas have a measured and indicated resource of 2.43 million tonnes grading 1.31% nickel, 0.033% cobalt and 14.7% iron. In the inferred category they contain 293,000 tonnes grading 1.23% nickel, 0.044% cobalt and 19.1% iron.

The company’s Philippine partners were originally granted SSMO permits for the Alpha property in 2006, which allowed them to evaluate, extract, test and sell nickel raw materials.

To take advantage of elevated commodity prices and nickel demand, MBMI’s partners built the infrastructure necessary to excavate and ship the nickel.

The Philippine government renewed two of the three SSMO permits in September 2008, which allows the company to continue the extraction and sale of up to 50,000 dry metric tonnes of raw nickel material per permit each year for an additional two years through to September 2010.

Full-scale mining permits are currently moving through a regulatory approval process, the company notes.

MBMI and its Philippine partners have an interest in nine nickel-laterite projects in the Philippines.

In Toronto the Canadian junior trades at about 5.9¢ per share and has 86.5 million shares outstanding.