Resources
Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc (“BMR”) has acquired all the stockpiles of tailings at the Kabwe Mine complex. These assets are held by Enviro Mining Ltd and its two Zambia-registered subsidiaries, Enviro Processing Ltd and Enviro Props Ltd, which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of BMR.
The Plan of the dumps acquired, comprising Stand 5187 (edged in red on the Plan) and the slag dump 57, is illustrated below.
An aerial photograph of the dumps complex at the Kabwe Mine.
The wash plant slimes dumps
The wash plant slimes dumps include residue historically produced at Kabwe prior to its closure through the washing of concentrates, Because of the high combined grade of lead and zinc at 17.87%, this section of the tailings is believed to be readily saleable without further processing.
The Mineral Corporation has produced for BMR a JORC-compliant mineral resources estimate for the wash plant tailings. The report was prepared by Mr D R Young (BSc. Hons., Geology), who is a Competent Person as defined by the JORC Code (2004), being registered as a Professional Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), with more than five years experience relevant to resource estimation.
JORC Mineral Resource estimates on lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) for the Kabwe Wash Plant Tailings are:
| Mineral Resource Class | Volume (m3) | Dry Bulk Density (t/m3) | Average Moisture Content | Pb (%) | Zn (%) | Wet Tonnage | Dry Tonnage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measured | 304,771 | 1.92 | 16.61% | 7.21 | 10.66 | 668,709 | 573,458 |
The leach plant tailings
Following the JORC mineral resources estimate published for the wash plant tailings at Kabwe above, The Mineral Corporation has also published a first JORC estimate report for the central section of the leach plant tailings. This section is where the auger drilling carried out in July 2010 has provided JORC-compliant assayable results.
This report was also prepared by Mr D R Young (BSc. Hons., Geology), who is a Competent Person as defined by the JORC Code (2004), being registered as a Professional Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), with more than five years experience relevant to resource estimation.
The JORC Mineral Resource estimates on Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) for the central section of the leach plant tailings are:
| Mineral Resource Classification | Volume (m3) |
Dry Bulk Density (t/m3) | Average Moisture Content (%) | Pb (%) |
Zn (%) |
Wet tonnage | Dry tonnage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measured | 1,890,674 | 1.21 | 33.63 | 8.31 | 3.74 | 2,995,933 | 2,241,961 |
The following map, produced by the Mineral Corporation and coloured by BMR, illustrates the sections of stockpiles covered by the two JORC-compliant reports:
Historic assessments of total resources at Kabwe
From the two historical resource statements compiled by ZCCM in 1995 and from official reports the following consolidated resource statement for all the underground and above-ground Dumps at the Kabwe Zinc and Lead Mine is provided in the table below.
All historic estimates are, however, not JORC compliant and have not been verified at this time and should therefore not be relied on as such. BMR intends to secure JORC-compliant resource statements for all the mineral resources owned in due course.
