Element 25 Limited (E25 or Company) (ASX: E25; OTCQX: ELMTF) is pleased to advise that resource infill drilling has commenced at the Company’s 100%-owned Butcherbird Manganese Project (Butcherbird or Project). E25 recently completed a Feasibility Study (FS) to expand the processing facility at Butcherbird to support manganese concentrate production of 1.1 million tonnes per annum1. The current reserve is constrained by the drill hole spacing in the inferred resource areas.
The additional drilling will provide infill data aimed at converting inferred resources to indicated or measured categories to support the re-estimation of mine reserves and extend the life-of-mine (LOM) plan to ~20 years based on conversion ratios seen at Butcherbird previously. The increase in the “reserve tail” is important for project financing and can open the project up to a wider range of potential financiers in addition to NAIF, who are currently undertaking due diligence2.
HIGHLIGHTS
Program comprises approximately 209 percussion drill holes for 6,270m targeting infill of existing inferred resources.Drilling designed to extend current reserves of 7.2 years to approximately 20 years at 1.1M tpa concentrate production.Reserve increase is an important component of securing project financing at favourable rates.
The Project hosts a global resource of over 260Mt of manganese ore however the current reserves are limited to the areas which have been drilled out to a sufficient density to support measured and indicated classifications which are required as the basis for a statement of reserves. The current drilling programme has been designed to infill existing inferred resources to a sufficient data density, based on variographic analysis, to convert the inferred resources within granted mining lease M52/1074 to indicated and/or measured.
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