The newsflow seems relentless at present. With African Aura due to demerge its gold portfolio from the iron ore next month, this one could be in for a bit of a rerating.
After the RNS last week reporting a maiden resource at Nkout in Cameroon of over 1 billion tonnes FE, today African Aura have released news that the Putu project in Liberia has now increased its inferred resource from just over 1 billion tonnes to 2.4 billion tonnes. Plus another 1 to 2.5 billion tonnes below the optimised pit shell.
There's plenty of interest in this share in the UK, where I hold, but much less in Canada it seems.
TIDMAAAM
RNS Number : 7566A
African Aura Mining Inc.
06 February 2011
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISSEMINATION TO US NEWS WIRE SERVICES.
7 February 2011
TSX-V: AUR
AIM: AAAM
PUTU IRON ORE RESOURCE MORE THAN DOUBLES TO 2.4 BILLION TONNES
African Aura Mining Inc. ("African Aura" or the "Company"), the TSX--V(AUR) and AIM (AAAM) listed exploration and development company ispleased to announce an updated independent National Instrument 43-101compliant Mineral Resource Estimate at its 38.5% owned Putu iron oreproject in Liberia.
-- Inferred resource increased to 2.4 billion tonnes of iron mineralisation at 34% Fe
-- Test work on magnetite BIF indicates a high grade concentrate can be produced
-- Potential for direct shipping ore exists to generate near term cash flow
-- Aggressive drilling campaign underway and expected to total >60,000m
-- Potential for a further 1 to 2.5Bt below current modelled optimised pit shell
Luis da Silva, Chief Executive of African Aura, commented:
"The more than doubling of the resource at the Putu iron ore projectin Liberia to 2.4Bt is further excellent news for African Aura'sshareholders. The headline objective of African Aura and our jointventure partner Severstal Resources was a 2Bt tonne resource and I amvery pleased that this has rapidly been achieved. We expect to upgradethis resource to the indicated category during 2011. The JV partners aremindful of the importance of moving the project forward as efficientlyas possible, for the benefit of the local communities and all otherstakeholders, and I look forward to providing updates on progress in duecourse.
This news also comes on top of our announcement last week of a maiden1Bt resource at our 100% owned Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon.African Aura's attributable iron ore inventory has increased fivefold inshort order, from 0.38Bt at 34% Fe in 2010 to the current 1.96Bt at 34%Fe (equivalent to 666Mt of contained iron) and with the potential forsignificant further growth from here. The rationale for the proposedsplit of the Company into separately listed iron ore and gold companies,with shareholders in African Aura receiving one share in each companyfor each share they hold in African Aura, is a means to allow the marketto better measure and reflect the intrinsic value of our assets whichis becoming increasingly apparent."
Mineral Resource Estimate
This Putu Mineral Resource estimate, issued by independent engineersSRK Consulting (UK) Ltd ("SRK") has been prepared for the Company andmade compliant with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI43-101).
The report serves as an independent report prepared by a QualifiedPerson as defined by the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and thecompanion policy 43-101CP. The definitions of Measured, Indicated andInferred Resources, as well as reserves as used by the author, conformto the definitions and guidelines of the CIM (Canadian Institute ofMining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) reporting codes.
Table 1: Putu Project, Mineral Resource Estimate
Resource SiO2 AL2O3
Zone Category Tonnes (Mt) Fe % % % P %
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Oxide Measured - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Indicated - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Meas + Ind - - - - -
---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Inferred 185 37.82 37.94 2.84 0.08
-------------------------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Magnetite
Itabirite Measured - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Indicated - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Meas + Ind - - - - -
---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Inferred 2,173 33.7 44.43 1.38 0.07
-------------------------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Haematite
itabirite Measured - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Indicated - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Meas + Ind - - - - -
---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Inferred 17 48.25 22.51 0.81 0.1
-------------------------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
TOTAL Measured - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Indicated - - - - -
--------------- ---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Meas + Ind - - - - -
---------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Inferred 2,374.00 34.1 43.8 1.49 0.07
-------------------------------- ------------ ------ ------ ------ -----
Notes:
(1) The effective date of the Mineral Resource Estimate is 4 February, 2011
(2) The Mineral Resource Estimate for the Putu deposit was constrainedwithin lithological and grade based solids and within a Lerchs-Grossmanpit shell defined by the following assumptions; metal price ofUSD1.40/dmtu; slope angles of 44 ; a mining recovery of 97.5%; a miningdilution of 2.5%; a base case mining cost of USD1.40/t and anincremental mine operating costs of USD0.05/t/10 m below the 100mreference RL and USD0.05/t/10 m above the 100 m reference RL; processoperating costs of USD2.68/t crushed oxide andUSD5.67/t crushed BIFmineralisation; and G&A costs of USD2,915/t crushed mineralisation.
(3) Mineral Resources for the Putu deposit has been classifiedaccording to the "CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves:Definitions and Guidelines (December 2005) by Howard Baker (MAusIMM) anindependent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
In total, SRK has estimated an Inferred Mineral Resource for the PutuProject of 2.37 billion tonnes ("Bt") grading 34.1% Fe, 43.8% SiO2,1.49% Al2O3 and 0.07% P. Of this, 185 million tonnes ("Mt") grading37.8% Fe lies within surface oxidized zone, 2.17 Btgrading 33.7% Fe lies within the fresh magnetite itabirite zone, and 17Mt grading 48.25% Fe lies within the fresh haematite itabirite zone.
Putu Resource Potential
The Putu model is open at depth and SRK recognises that there is potential to increase the Mineral Resource Statementby targeting material that falls below the optimised pit shell butremains potentially economic. This material, based on a metal price ofUSD1.40/dmtu is considered by SRK to be potentially economic, shouldsufficient exploration data be collected that confirms the geometry andcontinuation of the mineralisation and that enables a classifiedresource to be estimated.
SRK has identified that an additional 1 to 2.5 Bt lies below theoptimised pit shell used for constraining the Inferred MineralResources. The potential quantity of tonnes is conceptual in nature asthere has been insufficient exploration or demonstration of economicviability to report these in the Inferred Mineral Resource category atthe current time. It is uncertain if further exploration will result inthese targets being defined and reported in a future Mineral ResourceEstimate. These potential tonnages reflect a range of material withinSRK's wireframe solid models outlining the interpreted down dip extentof mineralisation. Database Validation
The QA/QC program for Company's Putu project consists of alternatingthe insertion of a blank and duplicate sample on a regular basis withinthe sample train. All samples have been assayed at the accredited SGSJohannesburg laboratory in South Africa. SRK found that the results ofthe above described QA/QC program indicate that the Company's Putu assaydatabases were appropriate for Mineral Resource Estimation, however,these databases need to be improved in order to upgrade the InferredMineral Resources to Indicated Mineral Resources.