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Blackthorn Resources unfurls 166m hit, grading 7.1% copper at Kitumba

Published: 14:55 27 Sep 2013 AEST

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Blackthorn Resources’ (ASX: BTR) infill drilling continues to support the economic potential of its Kitumba mineral resource deposit in Zambia with the latest results including 166 metres at 7.14% copper.

Notably, the result from Hole KITDD_031 is the highest ever grade for an intersection greater than 150 metres at Kitumba.
   
“We are very pleased to see these continuing high-grade results which provide further support for the economic potential of the Kitumba mineral resource deposit,” managing director Scott Lowe said.

“It is particularly pleasing to see in KITDD_031 the highest grade 150m + intercept we’ve ever reported.”

Kitumba is part of Blackthorn’s wholly-owned Mumbwa Project in west central Zambia that covers 250 square kilometres and that is being explored for Iron Oxide Copper Gold style mineralisation.

Drilling Details


KITDD_031 was drilled as an infill hole to improve the resource confidence at the Kitumba deposit.

It returned 166 metres at 7.14% copper from 199 metres including:

- 12 metres at 14.62% copper from 199 metres;
- 32 metres at 13.88% copper from 264 metres; and
- 13 metres at 12.46% copper from 313 metres.

KITDD_030 was drilled as an infill hole within the Kitumba mineral resource area to test the south-western extent of the high grade zone with the purpose of improving resource confidence.

It returned results in-line with the Kitumba mineral resource model of 184 metres at 2.71% copper from 278 metres. This includes an intersection of 135 metres at 3.27 % copper from 327 metres to 462 metres that in turn hosts:
-    8 metres at 10.8% copper from 331 metres; and
-    7 metres at 13.47% copper from 350 metres.

The company submitted 485 samples from KITDD_030 and 462 samples from KITDD_031 to the laboratory for analysis.

Phase 7 drilling started in June 2013 with a focus on converting the Resource to the Measured category from the Indicated category.

It is now complete with a total of 8231 metres of diamond drill core completed, including all infill holes, the extensions on S36-026 and S36-028, KITDD_034 and geotech holes.

Kitumba Copper Project

The company had earlier this month released the Pre-Feasibility Study for Kitumba that demonstrated its potential to be an economically and technically viable project.

Notably, work has begun on optimising the project with a focus on metallurgical recovery and mining sequence that could enhance economics.

This will be based on an updated Resource that incorporates recent high-grade drilling results, and is expected to lead to a PFS update in early 2014.

Kitumba is currently envisaged as an underground operation targeting the high-grade core of the deposit. This has a 11 year mine life based on 33 million tonnes of mineable ore with 572,000 tonnes of contained copper.

Analysis

The latest results lend further confidence to the conversion of the Indicated Resource at the Kitumba project into a Measured Resource.

This will contribute to optimisations of the Kitumba development, with a Pre-Feasibility Study updated expected in early 2014.

 

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