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Meridian Minerals Ltd

Meridian Minerals delivers excellent results from drilling at Kapok West

Australian resources company Meridian Minerals (ASX: MII) has announced the first eight drill holes completed on the extensional drill program at the Kapok West prospect in Western Australia all intersected encouraging widths of high-grade lead-zinc mineralisation.

The Kapok West extensional drill program forms a part of the Kapok/Kapok West Bankable Feasibility Study, which is examining the viability of recommencing mining activities at the Kapok mine and commencing a new mining operation at Kapok West.

During the afternoon trade, shares in Meridian were up 7.7% to 8.4c.

Currently the Kapok West mineral resource is 1.22Mt @ 4.3% Zn and 9.0% Pb, above a 5% Pb+Zn cut-off, and classified as Inferred in accordance with JORC.

Meridian Managing Director Jeremy Read said the initial results from the Kapok West extensional drill program were excellent, as potentially mineable widths and grades of high-grade lead and zinc mineralisation were intersected up to 150m west of the current western boundary of the Kapok West mineral resource.

“The initial drilling being completed has the objective of growing the Kapok West resource prior to a mining resource estimate being completed,” Mr Read said.

“In the first eight holes we intersected some excellent widths of high-grade mineralisation, which has increased our confidence of being able to extend the Kapok West resource westward, which could add significant value to the resource inventory on the Lennard Shelf Project.

“The average global grade, for the type of lead-zinc deposits occurring on the Lennard Shelf, is 7.9% Pb+Zn, so to have intersections over 12% Pb+Zn and up to 24% Pb+Zn is very encouraging.”

Currently, the company is planned to drill a further 25 holes as a part of the extensional drill program at Kapok
West.

Meridian is aiming to release the next batch of drill results within the next 3-4 weeks.

In late November 2009, Meridian commenced a BFS to determine the viability of recommencing mining of the Kapok mineral resource and establishing a new mining operation at the Kapok West mineral resource. The initial part of this study comprises a diamond drilling program of approximately 44 holes, to drill out the immediate extensions of the Kapok West mineral resource.

Kapok West is currently 1.22Mt @ 4.3% Zn and 9.0% Pb, above a 5% Zn+Pb cutoff and classified as Inferred in accordance with JORC. Once the extents of the Kapok West mineralisation have been determined, an infill drilling program will be undertaken in order to allow the majority of Kapok West to be classified as Indicated in accordance with JORC.