Erin Ventures Inc.announced an updated mineral resource estimate for its 100% owned Piskanja boron deposit, located in Serbia. The updated mineral resource statement was authored by SRK Consulting Ltd. independent of Erin, is based on 32,880 metres of drilling, and has been prepared in accordance with Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Instrument 43-101 “Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects”.
The most recent infill drill program was successful in increasing the contained boron in the Indicated Mineral Resource category by 41.2% or 700,000 tons
The Indicated Mineral Resource tonnage increased by 39.3% or 2.2M tons in the updated MRE vs the Maiden MRE
There is a global 2% increase in grade in B2O3 in the updated MRE when compared to the previous resource estimate
There is no material decrease in global tonnage nor contained B2O3 content in spite of SRK’s decision to increase the minimum mining thickness from 1.0 metre to 1.2 metre in the updated MRE
Comparison to Previous Estimates:
In comparison to the previous SRK 2013 MRE for the Project, which was also reported at a cut-off grade of 12% B2O3 but above a minimum mining thickness of 1.0 m, this updated MRE has more borate in the Indicated category and less borate in the Inferred category. These changes are primarily due to some previously reported Inferred material being upgraded in to the Indicated category though there is also a slight reduction in B2O3 content for the Project as a whole from 3.5 Mt to 3.4 Mt mainly as a result of a 6% reduction in tonnage. This change is primarily due to the infill drilling which has shown some of the thicker zones to be less continuous than previously assumed but also enabled the higher grade zones to be better delineated, which has reduced the tonnage slightly but at the same time slightly improved the grade
The infill drilling and database verification work completed since the last MRE was produced has added further confidence to the geological model, enabled the borate distribution to be interpolated with more confidence grade distributions and allowed the reporting of an updated MRE which is similar in quantum, but is now more robust, than that previously produced.
There are, however, still areas of lower geological confidence which require more drilling and which may be subject to further revision in the future and there is also some associated work which could be done alongside or prior to more drilling to improve confidence in the estimate generally.
In comparison to the MRE reported in November 2013, the database for the updated MRE includes an additional 12 drill-holes of infill drilling on a 50 metre by 50 metre grid. As this drill program was designed to increase the confidence level of the contained B2O3 over a known section of the deposit only and not designed to aid the expansion of the known footprint of the deposit, it was not surprising that the resulting updated MRE reflects no material change to the overall contained quantity of B2O3 in the deposit. However, as the deposit remains unbounded to the west and south, there remains the potential to increase the current mineral resources by targeting exploration programmes designed to delineate extensions to the existing mineralisation model at the peripheries of the deposit.
The updated Mineral Resource Statement reported herein was prepared in conformity with the Canadian Institute of Mining “Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserves Best Practices Guidelines”. The technical report, will be filed on SEDAR, and will contain more information with respect to the key assumptions, parameters, methods and risks of determination associated with the Mineral Resource Estimate.
source: juniorminingnetwork.com
