One Billion Tonnes Mineral Resource In Cameroon
Canyon Resources Limited (ASX: CAY) has released an updated Mineral Resource estimate of the high grade Minim Martap Bauxite Project in Cameroon, West Africa.
The updated JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource estimate for the Minim Martap Project in Cameroon has been upgraded following grade definition drilling.
The company reported that the quality of the Mineral Resource remains high in Alumina and low in Silica and contains 1.027 billion tonnes at 45.3% Al2O3, 2.7% SiO2 at a cut-off grade of 35% Al2O3, including:
A high-grade Resource of 500 million tonnes at 49.0% Al2O3, 2.6% SiO2 at a cut-off grade of 45% Al2O3, which includes a high-grade Measured Resource of 268 million tonnes at 49.7% Al2O3,2.6 %SiO2 at ac ut-off grade of 45% Al2O3
Managing Director, Phillip Gallagher said the one billion tonne resource represents only 17 bauxite plateaux of the Minim Martap Project with 62 plateaux remaining for drill testing..
Meanwhile, metallurgical test work continues to show high availability of contained alumina at over 90%3 and consistently high recoveries for all Minim Martap bauxite.
“This upgrade of the Minim Martap Mineral Resource to include 382Mt in the Measured category is particularly significant for the Project,” Mr Gallagher said.
“Canyon has now defined many operational decades of Measured Resources that are all very high grade and with very low silica. As the global bauxite market has a lot of new lower quality bauxite projects commence production in the past few years, such a potentially consistent long-term supply of such high quality bauxite is quite unique.”
Canyon’s Director of Project’s, James Durrant said this Resource upgrade brings over one third of the total Minim Martap resource into the Measured category.
“A significant milestone for the company, made possible by the hard work of our Cameroonian Team during some challenging times.
“Measured resources of 382Mt provides significance confidence in our resource definition, further de-risking an already robust project, and underpinning the production profile for the first 20 years of operation.”
Canyon’s mining and geological consultants, Mining Plus and Mark Gifford, contributed to the completion of the update. Both parties have a strong and long-term relationship with Canyon and the Project and are supporting Canyon in advancing the Bankable Feasibility Study.
The resource update follows the grade definition infill programme and further exploration drilling totalling 210 drill holes for 2,432m. The programmes were completed within the reported Beatrice, Raymonde and Danielle Plateaux in the Minim Martap exploration permit as well as new exploration areas within the Makan exploration permit (Emile and Fabiola Plateaux). This work has allowed for an update of the Mineral Resource Estimate. As part of this work, the surface digital terrain model (DTM) was updated for all of the plateaux that formed the infill drill programmee, and new exploration areas, and has provided the confidence within the closely drilled plateaux to report Measured Resources.
The Project is situated adjacent to the main rail line linking the region to the Atlantic port of Douala. The rail line is currently underutilised and coupled with the existing port of Douala, supports a low capex, low opex solution to deliver high grade, low contaminant, seaborne bauxite to market to fuel the large and growing aluminium industry as described in the 2020 Pre-Feasibility Study.
The country is planning a rail extension and is undergoing rail line debottlenecking upgrades, giving longer term potential for export through the newly built, deep-water port of Kribi.
Canyon is planning the development of the bauxite Project in a 2 Stage, 2 Port execution programme with initial production exported though the port of Douala utilising the existing rail and port infrastructure and Stage 2 unlocking tonnes and reducing costs by utilising the planned rail extension to access the deep-water port of Kribi.
