Finders updates Indonesian copper, gold project activities
Thursday, April 29 2010 - 08:56 AM WIB
Wetar Copper Project, North Maluku
Finders Resources Limited ~94%
Demonstration Plant Update
The demonstration plant had its most successful Quarter. with nameplate capacity exceeded and production of 453 tonnes of copper cathode.
This is a major milestone for the company and is a compliment to the dedication of the site work force and a reward for the successful optimisation of operations at site.
As a result of more efficient operations, the most recent copper cathode quality is now of the highest standard with impurity levels for all elements totalling about 6 parts per million (ppm) against an LME Grade A copper cathode benchmark of 65ppm.
| Operating Paramaters | ||||
| Leach Performance* | Heap 2 | Heap 3 | Heap 4 | |
| Grade (Cu %) | 3.6 | 4.9 | 5.0 | |
| Recovered Copper (total) - Tonnes | 453 | 612 | 482 | |
| Approx. % Copper Recovery to date | 55% | 65% | 29% | |
| Aproxx. Number of weeks under Irrigation | 59 | 53 | 34 | |
| Electrowinning | Q1 2010 | Q4 2009 | ||
| Copper Produced - Tonnes | 453 | 254 | ||
| Copper Sold - Tonnes | 361 | 240 | ||
| *As of 17 Apr 2010. All subject to final mass balances and weight reconciliations
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This production result builds on the operational experience gained over the past year and provides an excellent platform from which to develop the project to full commercial scale. The Company is advantaged during the demonstration phase by the ability to test all aspects of the commercial scale operation; including logistics, health and safety, operations and sales.
A key component is the capability to train employees; Finders has adopted a preferential policy towards the local villages and currently ?65% of our employees come from Wetar Island.
The skills development of our local crew has been very satisfying particularly considering that SX-EW technology is new to Indonesia. A number of employees have gained junior staff and leading hand positions and have gained formal certification for their new expertise.
Project Development ? Expanded Demonstration Plant (EDP)
The first stage of the Wetar Project development involves the brown-field expansion of the existing demonstration plant. The scope for Stage 1 in the definitive feasibility study has been revised to now comprise a planned expansion to 7,000 tpa copper cathode (up from 5,000 tpa).
Development activities have progressed on schedule during this period. Detailed design for the Stage 1 expansion of the project is planned to be completed in June 2010. The design managers are Brisbane based groups Electrowin and Neubau Engineering who have extensive combined experience in the engineering, design and delivery of copper SX-EW operations.
Various tender inquiries are in progress with Indonesian suppliers and contractors. Finders have appointed Geoff Hiller as Project Manager Wetar and he will report to Rob Thomson (Executive Director Development). Geoff has a mining and civil engineering background and for the past 3 months has been responsible for the successful dismantling of the Whim Creek SX-EW plant in Western Australia.
The Company has been engaging with potential financiers for the past 6 months and a considerable number of site visits have been undertaken. From a shortlisted group, detailed discussions of draft terms sheets are underway with the intention to achieve project financing in line with expected grant of mining lease.
Whim Creek SX-EW Plant
Finders? purchase of the Whim Creek plant in December 2009 ensured that the bulk of equipment required for project expansion is now owned by the Company and a clear point of differentiation with other junior exploration companies at similar stages of development. The Whim Creek plant disassembly has been completed on time and within budget and its components are currently containerized and ready for transportation to Wetar.
Ojolali Project, Lampung
Finders Resources Limited ~72% with option to increase to 100%
Background Information
The Company believes that the Ojolali project has strong potential to be a follow-on project for Finders based on the development of the gold resource at the iambi Oxide gold deposit (Table 3.)
Finders has previously announced Inferred Resources at the Tambang Prospect (7.9 Mt @ 167g/t Ag and 0.7 g/t Au at a 1 g/t Au equivalent cut-off using drilling data from a previous explorer).
Previous regional exploration by Finders, using both soil geochemistry and ground geophysics has located numerous targets with outstanding potential for the discovery of additional resources.
Finders? current exploration strategy at Ojolali is to increase the oxide gold-silver resource base to +300,000 Oz Au eq, to provide the basis for a low cost 30-50,000 Oz gold equivalent per year open pit mine based on the iambi and Tambang oxide deposits, and to use the cash flow from this plant to fund exploration for additional resources and progressive expansion of the project.
Way Neki Drilling
During the quarter, the 6 diamond drill hole program at Way Neki was completed. Drill coordinates have been previously reported. All holes intersected gold mineralization, but intercepts were narrow and generally low grade, with gold associated with both clay altered structural zones and or quartz calcite veining.
The host rocks show intense pervasive chlorite carbonate alteration suggesting that the Way Neki area represents an outer zone of a large zoned alteration system. High values obtained from trench samples were not reproduced in primay cores, suggesting strong surficial enrichment of gold in this area.
Final assays have now been received for the scout drill programmed (Table 4), with a best intercept of 1m @ 8.13 g/t Au at a depth of 60.72m in WNK04.
Jambi Extension Diamond Drilling
Five (5) diamond drill holes (total 726m) were completed to test northern and western extensions to the iambi resource indicated by trench mapping and sampling.
While grades for his drilling were generally low, with a best intercept of 4.5m at 1.6 g/t Au and 2.9 g/t Ag from 12m in hole BKJ131, all holes intersected wide zones of low grade primary mineralization, including
? 26.55m at 0.31 g/t Au from 38m in BKJ 131,
? 28m at 0.31 g/t Au from 73m in BKJ 132,
? 22.3m at 0.21 g/t Au, 8.9 g/t Ag in BKJ 134, the northernmost hole drilled.
The thickness of oxide mineralization declines rapidly at lower RLs around Jambi Hill, but the primary gold mineralization remains open to the north, north east, south-west and at depth. There is an apparent increase in associated pyrite to the north, and variations in primary gold-silver ratios indicate that large scale zoning may occur, which will assist in targetting deeper ore zones.
Tambang Supergene Silver-Gold Target
Previous diamond drilling by Finders at Tambang has targetted primary mineralization, below the zone of oxidation, and has generally shown very poor core recoveries within the vein zone, resulting from the highly fractured nature and very uneven hardness of the rock in the vein zone. Limited drilling in the near surface zone has shown very promising assays, despite poor core recoveries, as tabulated below.
With the target zone ranging from l0m to +25m in width the Tambang vein system has potential for +300,000t per l00m strike length, to l00m depth, straddling the zone of potential enrichment and a known strike length of +2km.
A reverse circulation drill rig has been mobilised to test the central 700m of this zone with close spaced holes, targetting open pittable leachable silver-gold deposits above the known suiphides.(end of edited excerpt)