MPM receives technical report for Ben LomondMaple Minerals receives technical report for Ben Lomond
Maple Minerals Corp (TSX-V:MPM)
Shares Issued 29,488,635
Last Close 8/8/2005 $1.40
Tuesday August 09 2005 - News Release
Mr. L.M. Falzone reports
BEN LOMOND URANIUM RESOURCES CALCULATION IN COMPLIANCE WITH NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 43-101
Maple Minerals Corp. has filed a new technical report dated July 16, 2005, in respect of the Ben Lomond uranium deposit on Stockwatch SEDAR files. The Ben Lomond report enables the uranium resources referred to in the table below to be categorized as National Instrument 43-101-defined resources. The Ben Lomond report, entitled "Technical Report on the Mining Leases Covering the Ben Lomond Uranium-Molybdenum Deposit, Queensland, Australia," was prepared for Maple by Andrew Vigar and David G. Jones, each of whom is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators.
Maple has agreed to acquire 100 per cent of the outstanding common shares of Uranium Minerals Ventures Inc. (UMVI), which has, in turn, agreed to acquire the Ben Lomond deposit from Afmeco Mining & Exploration Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of Cogema Ltd. In Stockwatch on July 20, 2005, Maple announced that the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency gave its approval to the transfer of the Ben Lomond claims from Afmeco to UMVI. The transfer of the claims is now subject to the execution of the transfer by the Queensland Minister of Natural Resources and Mines. It is expected that shortly after the final transfer of the claims, the UMVI acquisition will close. The TSX Venture Exchange has given conditional approval to the UMVI acquisition, subject to the above-noted transfer of claims.
An independent resource estimation of the Ben Lomond deposit in 1982 by the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) reported the following resources in the indicated and inferred resource categories at a cut-off of 500 parts per million (ppm) U and converted to percentage U3O8.
U3O8
U3O8 U3O8 million
Category Tonnes % tonnes pounds
Indicated 1,328,466 0.27 3587 7.9
Inferred 602,585 0.21 1265 2.8
The authors of the technical report have examined the data on which the resource calculation was based and have concluded that the above resource estimate by the AAEC is currently valid, reliable and relevant as it was conducted according to the Australian JORC guidelines of the day, which uses categories and terms which are still in use in the current version of the Australian JORC (2004). It is the authors' opinion that the resource estimate is compliant with the definitions under sections 1.3 and 1.4 of the current Canadian National Instrument 43-101.
In addition, the Ben Lomond report refers to the presence of molybdenum associated with the uranium resource at Ben Lomond. The molybdenum has a similar origin, spatial distribution and grade to the uranium. The molybdenum contained within the the uranium resource was estimated by Minatome in 1981 using a regression comparison with the uranium values as being 4,392 tonnes (9.8 million pounds) at an average grade of 0.2 per cent Mo. The reliability of these estimates is lower than for the uranium and they were not reported in the AAEC estimate noted above so the authors included no NI 43-101 statement of tonnage or grade in their report. Nevertheless, the authors are of the opinion that molybdenum credits do exist at Ben Lomond, are relevant and will be quantified by future work.
The authors conducted a site visit in connection with the preparation of the Ben Lomond report. Because more than 20 years have elapsed since the last detailed work was done on the Ben Lomond deposit, the authors were not able to verify the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the resource estimate but considered them to be reliable. The authors conducted a detailed review of the documents underlying AAEC's estimate, which used a cut-off grade of 500 ppm U. The authors reviewed the grade and volumes of mineralization and undertook a geological interpretation of the data. The opinion of the authors that the resource estimate is currently valid is based in large part on the high quality of the previous work done by AAEC and its thorough documentation and further based on the overall good large-scale continuity of ore and presence of significant surface outcrop and underground development. The authors concluded that AAEC gives a fair estimate of the available uranium resource that should be used for current project evaluation. The current policy of the Queensland State government does not permit the mining or processing of uranium in the state. In view of this impediment, and as the findings of the 1982 feasibility study are no longer current, and as there is potential for the discovery of additional economically minable uranium-molybdenum mineralization along strike to the east which could have a significant impact on the project, the authors regard the Ben Lomond project as being at the advanced exploration stage rather than the development stage and have reported estimates of mineral resources rather than mineral reserves as defined in the current Canadian National Instrument 43-101. The authors note that, as defined in NI 43-101 clause 3.4 (e), "mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability" even though the restrictions on development at Ben Lomond are largely political rather than economic. Notwithstanding the present political considerations, the company believes that the Ben Lomond deposit has reasonable prospects for economic extraction. No more recent estimates or data are available to Maple at this time.
For further details of the proposed transaction, please see news in Stockwatch on Jan. 25, 2005.