Resource confidence at Asiamet Resources’ Beruang Kanan Main (BKM) deposit in Indonesia has been significantly upgraded with contained copper in measured and indicated resources increased by 207% compared to the October 2015 estimate. A new estimate has added 66 million pounds, or 30,000 tonnes, of contained copper to the resource inventory.
The BKM deposit, which is within Asiamet’s KSK Contract of Work in Kalimantan, is now estimated to contain measured and indicated resources of 49.2 million tonnes at 0.70% copper containing 711.3 million pounds, or 322,600 tonnes, of copper at a 0.2% copper cut-off grade.
The new resource has been independently estimated by Duncan Hackman of Hackman & Associates Pty Ltd (Australia). It will be the subject of ongoing mining engineering and metallurgical studies as part of a BKM feasibility study and further optimisation of the BKM preliminary economic assessment (PEA) open pit design is expected.
Measured resources now stand at 20.5 million tonnes at 0.7% copper containing 325.7 million pounds, or 147,700 tonnes. The October 21, 2015 estimate contained no measured resources.
There are now indicated resources of 28.7 million tonnes at 0.6% containing 385.6 million pounds, or 174,900 tonnes. The October 2015 estimate contained 15 million tonnes at 0.7% containing 231 million pounds, or 105,000 tonnes.
There are 17.7 million tonnes of inferred resources at 0.6% containing 241 million pounds, or 109,300 tonnes compared to the 2015 estimate of 49.7 million tonnes at 0.6% containing 657 million pounds, or 298,000 tonnes.
Asiamet says 73% of the copper contained in resources is within the April 2016 BKM PEA conceptual open pit mine design.
A leachable copper model for the BKM deposit will be constructed using sequential copper analysis data from all post 2013 drill core samples and an initial mineral reserve will in turn be generated from the measured and indicated component of this leachable copper resource model. The company expects to complete the feasibility study in early 2018 and make a development decision at that time.
The BKM resource estimate is based on assays from 269 diamond drill core holes that were drilled from 1998 to 2007, from 2012 to 2013 and by Asiamet from 2015 to 2017.
Asiamet’s CEO Peter Bird said, “The outcomes from the resource evaluation work completed on the BKM deposit over the past year have been outstanding. Copper grades and tonnages have proven to be very robust. Most importantly, 75% of the contained copper is now in high confidence resources and 73% sits inside the PEA pit design.
“As such the conversion to mineral reserves is anticipated to be strong when mining and metallurgical studies are completed in coming months. We are very pleased with the outcome of resource work and expect it will provide a solid base to build upon an already very robust PEA.”
Asiamet