The AVZ Minerals Ltd [ASX:AVZ] shares are up 6.67% today (at time of writing) after the company updated the mineral resource estimate at their Manono project.
AVZ Minerals is an exploration company. Their focus is the Manono Lithium and Tin project, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Africa.
AVZ adds 12 million in indicated resources
AVZ Minerals said today it has updated the mineral resource of their Manono project after adding recent results from their pit floor drilling program at Roche Dure.
AVZ’s Managing Director Nigel Ferguson said:
‘Geological modelling of the pit floor has confirmed the presence of high grade, fresh pegmatite in all of the nine resource holes drilled on sections 7100m N to 7300m N at Roche Dure.’
AVZ completed the pumping of water from Roche Dure pit in February last year. This allowed the drill rigs access to establish the nature of the mineralisation in the area under the pit floor, an area they refer to as ‘wedge’.
AVZ then drilled a total of nine diamond holes inclined to the northwest and of a depth of between 72 m and 276 m during 2020 and 2021. According to AVZ, the drilling ‘confirmed the continuity of the pegmatite and mineralisation within the “wedge”.’
With this information, AVZ Minerals upgraded 12 million tonnes from inferred resources to indicated resources. Both measured and indicated resources are now 274 million tonnes.
As Ferguson said:
‘These additional tonnes, located at shallow depth in the existing pit, are expected to result in fundamental improvements to the mine design and mining schedule as the optimised mine model will treat the wedge material as ore, rather than waste.’
What could happen next to the AVZ share price?
As Ferguson continued:
‘The lower strip ratio resulting from the increase in ore mined over the optimised mine plan, coupled with lower LOM cost assumptions, is expected to have a positive impact on the optimised DFS to be completed next month which will greatly assist our discussions with prospective financiers.’
AVZ Minerals shares boosted up after the release and are trading at 16 cents at time of writing.
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