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Updated Nifty Copper Resource Estimate
Managing Director Barry Cahill commented:
"Our first mineral resource estimate for the Nifty copper deposit is the result of months of rigorous geological surveys conducted by our geological team with the assistance of experienced external consultants. This is the first model of the deposit, which also incorporates Residual heap leaching and primary sulfide mineralization domains into a single continuous estimate.
This new MRE not only confirms that Nifty is a top copper deposit, but also supports the development plan currently being evaluated as part of Nifty's heap leaching restart study, which is expected to be delivered in December. The significant increase in the heap leaching composition of the deposit also confirms our view that Nifty has considerable room to become a long-term producer of SX-EW copper cathodes. "
Cyprium Metals Limited (ASX: CYM) ("Cyprium" or "Company") is pleased to announce the company's first mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Nifty copper deposit after completing the acquisition of the Paterson copper project in March 2021 Cyprium’s previously disclosed estimate of Nifty is based on a review of the estimate disclosed by the previous owner of the project on December 31, 2019.
The current Nifty MRE is 45.9Mt, the copper content is 1.6%, and the total copper inventory is about 732,000 tons (see Table 1). This is important because this is the first time that a single model has been constructed for various geometallurgical fields, reflecting How copper mineralization can be restored.
Table 1: Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for November 2021-Beautiful Copper Deposit
The focus of Nifty's heap leaching restart study is the development of the first phase of the project, which involves returning to heap leaching and solvent extraction electrolytic extraction (SX-EW) to produce refined copper cathodes on site. The MRE confirmeda large amount of residual heap leaching mineralization inventory (11.9 tons, 1.1% copper content, and approximately 135,000 tons of copper-containing metals). Our recent drilling in Nifty West and East is mainly to confirm mineralization and increase credibility, so as to classify inferred resources and possible mineralization expansion.
As a background, Nifty was discovered by Western Mining Corporation in 1981, and open-pit and heap leaching operations for mining copper oxide ore began in 1993. The operation was acquired by Straits Resources Co., Ltd. in 1998, and the latter continued to carry out heap leaching operations throughout his tenure. Aditya Birla Minerals Ltd acquired Nifty in 2003, open-pit mining operations ceased in 2006, and heap leaching operations ceased in the first quarter of 2009, leaving approximately 17 tons of partially leached material on the mat. Since then, Nifty has been producing copper concentrate in a separate dedicated flotation circuit entirely as an underground mining operation.
By 2019, Nifty's previous operations had produced more than 714,000 tons of copper metal. Most of the information outlined below comes from historical production activities and has been incorporated into the new MRE.
Additional Information-ASX Listing Rules 5.8
The Nifty Deposit Trusted Copper Deposit is located in the Neoproterozoic sub-greenschist facies of the Paterson Orogen, about 330 kilometers southeast of Port Hedland, 200 kilometers east-southeast of Marble Dam, and 65 kilometers west of Telfer, Western Australia.
The Northwestward Patterson Orogen is more than 1,000 kilometers long and 150 to 200 kilometers wide. It surrounds the northeastern edge of the Pilbara Craton from Archean to Paleoproterozoic and merges with the Musgrave Orogenic Belt in the southeast. Paterson Orogen is composed of two main elements, the Paleo-Early Mesoproterozoic metamorphic igneous and sedimentary rocks of the Rudall Complex, and the unconformity overlying (approximately 9 to 13km thick) of the Neogene Eocene (approximately 9 to 13km thick) of 850 to 824 Ma Yeneena supergroup .
The global pre-mined resources of the Nifty deposit are approximately 100 metric tons, with a copper content of 1.7% (the copper boundary value is 0.5%). Copper appears in the form of superficial oxides, sulfides and transitional mineralization, with a depth of about 300m, and in the form of stratified secondary sulfides, mainly located in the carbonaceous and dolomitic pages in the Nifty carbonate section In the rock, the depth is about 600m.
The Nifty copper deposit is a stratigraphic body controlled by structure and lithology in the Nifty syncline.
Huge, disseminated and vein-like copper mineralization occurs as a chalcopyrite-quartz-dolomite substitute controlled by the structure of carbonaceous and dolomitic shale within the folding sequence. Copper sulfide mineralization is mainly confined to the syncline and the keel of the north wing.
Figure 1: Cross-sectional schematic diagram through Nifty Syncline
The Nifty deposit has been drilled and sampled using a variety of techniques, but only diamond and reverse circulation drilling results are used for mineral estimation purposes. Drilling holes have been drilled at variable intervals from the surface and underground, along and across the strike of the deposit.
Approximately 284,000 meters have been drilled near the deposit. Generally speaking, the drilling direction is suitable for the trend and tilt of the mineralization
Use a mechanical saw to half-core all the cores used for analysis, and collect the RC chip samples through a cyclone separator, which is cleaned by blowing air between the samples.
The on-site secondary sampling of chip samples and the cutting of core samples are in line with industry standard practices, as are the procedures used in on-site and off-site laboratories.
The criteria used to classify mineral resources include the robustness of the input data, the credibility of the geological interpretation, including the predictability of the structure and grade of the mineralized area, the distance from the data, and the amount of data that can be used in the block estimate The corresponding mineralization zone and kriging efficiency of the estimated grade in the insert block. The following table lists the data range of each standard related to the classification of measured resources, indicated resources, and inferred resources.
According to different laboratories, various methods are used to complete multi-element analysis, including:
The grade is estimated based on the members of each sequence in the four structural domains of the deposit using ordinary kriging method. The geostatistical evaluation and grade estimation of the control variation function are carried out for each stratigraphic unit in each structural domain.
The density is specified by the lithology and grade range. Composite materials are created in each unit, and the input of grade estimation is limited to those composite materials in the estimated unit.
No top cut is made to the composite material. The reduced search ellipse method using half of the first search ellipse distance is used for grades >30% Cu.
Use GEOVIA GEMS software to notify the estimated block in a three-step strategy.
The borehole intersections in the mineralized body are defined and then used to mark the appropriate part of the borehole database table for synthesis purposes.
Subsequently, the boreholes were synthesized into 1m intervals for grade estimation. In all aspects of resource estimation, facts and explanatory geology were used to guide the development of interpretation and estimation.
The resource reporting cut-off grade is 0.75% copper for sulfide resources and 0.4% copper for oxide resources, which is consistent with the resource estimates used for direct comparison in the past. The cut-off level will be reviewed as part of the current heap leaching restart study.
The operation is currently undergoing a transition from a maintenance and maintenance system to open-pit mining restart.
The Nifty deposit has been mined in open pit and underground in the past. In the first phase of production restart, Cyprium plans to re-turn to open-pit mining after refurbishing existing facilities to produce copper metal through heap leaching and SX-EW processing technology.
A fully functional 2.8Mtpa flotation concentrator is located on site, in a state of maintenance and maintenance, and can handle deeper sulfide mineralization. The investigation into the restart of the facility will be the core of the second phase of the future (not yet determined) operational restart study.
The following table provides a comparison between the current November 2021 MRE and the previously published December 2019 estimates (Table 3).
CYM = Cyprium Metals Limited November 2021 estimate
MLX = Metals X Limited (former owner of the deposit) estimated on December 31, 2019
The heap leaching oxide cited by MLX in its estimate on December 31, 2019 has been deleted, and CYM no longer quotes
In general, local differences can be attributed to the following factors (not in order of importance):
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Cyprium Metals Limited released this content on November 16, 2021, and takes full responsibility for the information contained therein. Distributed by the public at 22:06:17, November 16, 2021, UTC time, unedited and unaltered.