Key points
- DFI exercised its option to acquire 100 per cent of the exploration rights to the Valozoro nickel deposit, announced May 9, 2007.
- The deposit is a type A nickel-laterite up to 17 metres thick, located 60 kilometres north of Fianarantsoa in south-central Madagascar.
- BRGM’s late-1950s sampling estimated a historical resource of 3.7 million tons grading 1.75 per cent nickel, containing 65,000 tonnes of contained nickel metal.
- The current program involves channel sampling of over 400 pits at half-metre intervals, expected to generate over 8,000 samples with final results by February 2008.
Following Diamond Fields International Ltd.’s announcement in Stockwatch May 9, 2007, that Diamond Fields has exercised its option to acquire 100 per cent of the exploration rights
to the Valozoro nickel deposit, DFI is providing an update on work
progress on this deposit.
The Valozoro nickel deposit is located 60 kilometres north of the town of
Fianarantsoa in south-central Madagascar approximately 300 kilometres south of the
capital city Antananarivo. Weathering and alteration of a harzburgite
protolith have produced a type A nickel-laterite deposit up to 17 metres thick.
The deposit was first systematically sampled on a 20-metre by 20-metre grid in
the late 1950s by BRGM, which quoted an estimated resource of 3.7 million tons
of ore grading 1.75 per cent nickel containing 65,000 tonnes of contained nickel
metal. This is a historical resource estimate and a qualified person has not
done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral
resources or mineral reserves under National Instrument 43-101 as defined in sections 1.2 and 1.3, and the company is not treating it as
such.
The company is currently undertaking a new extensive channel sampling
program of over 400 of the existing prospecting pits with samples being taken
at half-metre intervals to determine the actual contained value of the orebody in terms of both nickel and secondary products such as cobalt. In excess
of 8,000 channel samples are expected to be generated from this program. The
program design is expected to enable the estimation of a measured resource in
terms of NI 43-101, and allow the construction and delineation of an orebody
model to produce a mine development plan. The sampling work is expected to be
completed by the beginning of October, 2007, when the samples are scheduled to
be shipped to South Africa for analysis. Final analytical and modelling results
are projected to be completed by February, 2008. Field observations indicate
that the majority of the existing pits do not reach the underlying regolith,
but terminate in a saprolitic boulder horizon, consistent with findings from a
ground-penetrating radar study carried out in 2005. By implication, the
measured resource may be larger than previously estimated.
Roger Daniel, DFI’s president and chief executive officer, commented: “With continued strength
in base metal prices we are very excited about the prospects for this property
in Madagascar. We believe that this deposit is Madagascar’s second major
source of nickel after the Ambatovy nickel project where a consortium
comprising the Sherrit International Corporation, the Korea Resource
Corporation and the Sumitomo Corporation have recently announced that they
intend spending $3.3-billion (U.S.) to develop its project.”
Mr. Daniel, BSc (honours) geology, London, PrSciNat, the company’s
president and CEO, who is a fellow of the South African Institute of Mining
and Metallurgy (SAIMM), is also a registered geological scientist with the
South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), and is
thus a qualified person in terms of National Instrument 43-101, has compiled
and reviewed the scientific and technical information contained in this news
release.
