Ursa Major posts Shakespeare resource (April 16, 2004)

Ursa Major Minerals (UMJ-V) has calculated a new resource at the Shakespeare nickel-copper deposit near Sudbury, Ontario.

Ursa Major, which holds a 75% interest in the property under a deal from former operator Falconbridge (FL-T), is hoping to mine Shakespeare as a feeder operation for Falconbridge’s Sudbury milling and smelting complex.

The new resource has been calculated for two zones, Shakespeare East and Shakespeare West. Shakespeare East, the larger zone discovered by Ursa Major in 2002, contains an indicated resource of 9 million tonnes grading 0.36% nickel, 0.37% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.34 gram platinum and 0.19 gram gold per tonne, plus an additional inferred resource of 22,000 tonnes with 0.29% nickel, 0.24% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.23 gram platinum, 0.24 gram palladium and 0.14 gram gold per tonne.

Shakespeare West contains indicated resources of 3 million tonnes, at grades of 0.29% nickel, 0.33% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.34 gram platinum, 0.37 gram palladium, and 0.19 gram gold per tonne. An inferred resource of 93,000 tonnes at 0.27% nickel, 0.31% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.33 gram platinum, 0.35 gram palladium and 0.17 gram gold per tonne has also been outlined.

In 1985 Falconbridge calculated a near-surface resource on Shakespeare West of 1.9 million tonnes grading 0.36% nickel,0.42% copper, 0.40 gram platinum, 0.44 gram palladium and 0.23 gramgold per tonne.

The two deposits are both enclosed in a pit shell based on some preliminary economic assumptions. The cutoff grade of the resource is a total metal value, using 24-month average prices, of $43.65 per tonne (Canadian). Those average prices were:

• US$9,280 per tonne for nickel
• US$1,810 per tonne for copper
• US$10.48 per lb. (US$23,100 per tonne) for cobalt
• US$635.40 per oz. for platinum
• US$300.31 per oz. for palladium, and
• US$351.43 per oz. for gold.

The pit design shows a stripping ratio of 6.38.

A resource estimate last July, using a cutoff grade of $50 per tonne, showed a smaller but higher grade resource. Improved metal prices, offset somewhat by the increased value of the Canadian dollar in U.S.-dollar terms, have allowed some marginal lower-grade mineralization to be brought into the resource.